Naruto of the White Thunderstorm
by Unlimited Blade Works
Summary: Naurto AU, Chakra users, their either human weapons or imprisoned. Naruto, the sarcastic devil may care white lightning Chakra user has been surviving for years in the underworld of society so when he's finally caught and put away for good what does he do? Brutal Fighting Tournaments? Underground Fight Clubs? Prison Gangs? Corrupt Guards? Heh. Bring. It. Fucking. On.
1. Chapter 1

**Hakushoku Raiu no Naruto**

**Arc One: Welcome To Konoha **

**Authors Note-**

Just found this sitting on an old flash drive I was about to throw out. It was around two hundred words away from completion so I fixed up the grammar and finished it off, let me know what you guys think. I am fairly sure that this is my first attempt at a complete Naruto AU.

Also as some if not all of you know I am a Naru X Kushi Shipper so three guesses what the eventual pairing is, please enjoy. Also If this is ever continued and it might be depending on responces and how my other stories go, then it's going to get darker. I found the plot out line for this story on that flash drive as well and it got darker.

So let me know what you guys think, also for those of you who were wondering Hakushoku Raiu no Naruto means Naruto of the White Thunderstorm in English.

**Story Start- **

Hey you ever wonder why the world is the way it is?

Nah me neither.

Or at least I never used to, I mean, I never really saw the point. The world was the way it was and what could I do about it? Thought's like that kept me from ever really questioning what exactly why the world was the way it was, hell I didn't really question it until I was almost twenty three years old, after two whole years inside that hell hole and another few before I escaped it.

But I'm getting off topic, my questioning led me to where I am right now, standing in front of a man that had killed thousands and enslaved even more. Torn mothers away from their daughters and Fathers away from their sons, all in the name of genetic purity and the 'safety' of the human race, what a load of bullshit.

Though I don't suppose that you have any idea what I'm talking about right now do you?

So I guess I better start at the beginning.

**Fifteen Years Earlier**

Chakra usage, an ability so dangerous that it's outlawed in every nation in the world. Considered dangerous and inhuman by the populous despite only a ten percent chance of being born able to wield it. This energy gives it's user one personal ability that most would call supernatural, some are similar, or even identical to each other, others are unique and only ever seen in one individual.

The users of Chakra are considered to be a danger to the people and as such are locked into high security prisons. The five main prisons are Konoha, Kiri, Iwa, Kumo and Suna every Chakra user above the age of five caught is placed into one of these five for life with no hope of release. Those younger than five are taken away to be trained into human weapons. While the imprisoned are forced to work and to fight for their survival, each prison is a city within it's own right.

With facility's ranging from gym's to movie theatres, however as one would expect none of this is free the prisoners must pay to use them. By use of a monetary system unique to the prison but to earn that money a prisoner has to do one of two things, the first is work at a factory inside the prison making goods for the outside world; the second is by fighting in The Arena.

The Arena is a home to gladiatorial matches between Chakra users, ranging from team matches, to races and even death matches. The public pay exorbitant fees to come and watch monsters as they call them fight to the death for their amusement. The nations of the world are fully convinced that Chakra users are monsters that only love death and destruction.

**XXX**

Naruto whistled to himself as the prison bus got closer to their destination, Konoha. Oh well, his luck had to run out eventually, after thirteen years of running and staying out of the place Naruto liked to think that he'd had a good run. Most Chakra users didn't last three months once they first displayed their abilities.

Still life could always be worse, he could be dead. Which is exactly what would have happened to him had he killed anyone important, fortunately the only people Naruto had killed had all been complete douchebags that lurked in the underground of society, just like he had before he was caught. People that no one would miss. People like him.

The blond yawned and looked around the bus, he was far from alone. They were bringing another five Chakra users in, well six if he counted himself. One had black hair and a duck ass hair cut, another, long blond hair tied up in a pony tail. Two sitting near the back had brown and black hair respectively, while the one with brown hair was far wider and the one with black hair had his done up into something resembling a pineapple. The last one had red hair, long red hair, but that was all he could tell about her from the angle he was on at the moment, none of them looked to be anything special, then again Naruto supposed he didn't look like anything special.

Standing at six feet two inches, or one hundred and eighty-seven centimetres depending on which numbering system you were using. Blue eyes with three horizontal facial scars on each cheek, Naruto had no idea how he had got those, originally he thought they were birthmarks but according to the doctor no, they were actually scars, who knew?

His body was mostly muscle, mostly, he had spent the last few years just floating from job to job in the underworld, doing everything from petty theft to bodyguard work, you would be surprised how much people were willing to offer to have someone that could use Chakra to guard them. Though he had never actually learned how to fight, Naruto was a brawler, still with his ability all he had to do most of the time was come into contact with his opponent and the fight was over.

Though Naruto did suppose that it should be noted that Chakra users, or some of them at least. Could shrug off his abilities to some extent. He had learned that the hard way when one of the governments pet Chakra users had come after him. Now their was a painful memory. Still like he had said earlier, it could have been worse.

The bus went over a bump and brought Naruto out of his slight reminiscing, the blonds blue eyes opened slightly as he saw the 'Wall of Konoha' come into view. It was almost one hundred fifty feet tall, at least by Naruto's guess, and considering some of the places he had to rob in the past the blond felt fairly confident in his guess. Well their went escape plan one, tunnel under the wall. He hadn't really expected to actually use that escape plan but hey it was better to at least have a plan in mind right? Well now he was back to square one, oh well.

The bus got closer, there was still no talk between his fellow prisoners. Meh, he didn't really feel like talking himself so Naruto supposed he couldn't blame them. The blond looked down at his hands, the cool metal of his handcuffs staring back at him, the seals that restricted his Chakra easily visible, still they would be taken off soon. The cuffs had a limit of ten hours as maximum before his Chakra would overload them. Thank Kami for small miracles, if they could seal away his Chakra for good Naruto wasn't sure what he'd do, he'd probably have to, shudder, become a productive member of society.

The bus came to a stop, Naruto sighed to himself as he stood up for the first time in five hours, dear sweet Kami he couldn't feel his legs. The man who had been driving the bus stepped out of his protective cage and gestured to the, now open, door.

"Alright everybody out, I hope you enjoy the remainder of your lives." The driver stated, sounding oddly sincere in his wish. Naruto just shrugged and followed the girl with red hair and the man with the duck ass hairdo out of the bus, almost groaning in relief when his feet hit the hard packed dirt road. Oh it felt good to be out in the open, waiting for the six were twenty men and women in grey armour and animal masks, the prison guards.

"Everyone file through to the desk inside the door and state your name, you will be given supplies, living quarters and an information package that will help you adjust to living in Konoha." Said one of the masked figures, a female one, Naruto noted, wearing a captains insignia. The group of six filed towards the small door that was literally built into the massive wall above. Though if what he could tell was right there was a metal shutter that came down to cover the door whenever it was not in use.

The inside was a small office, there was a man behind a wrought iron grate handing out information to the first person inline, the pineapple haired man. Naruto zoned out as the line slowly moved forward, so far he had no escape plan at all, zilch, nada, nothing, looked like he would be playing it by ear from here on out. The twenty one year old smiled when his turn in the cue finally came. The man behind the grate looked around thirty and was not wearing an animal mask, his face was tanned and he looked athletic, a prominent scar running from under the man's left eye and ending under his right.

"Name?" The man inquired politely, which Naruto personally found to be surprising. So far the prison guards had been a lot more friendly than he was expecting. Honestly Naruto was expecting to be called a freak or a monster by every guard he talked to, well he would find a guard that did that eventually he was sure.

"Naruto, no last name." The blond answered getting a nod from the tanned man behind the iron grate. His eyes skimmed the list before the man nodded to himself and placed a tick on some kind of sheet before grabbing a clear plastic bag from under the desk and pushing it through a small opening at the bottom of the grate.

"Okay there you are Naruto," The man said cheerfully. "Inside the packet is some information about the prison, the address of your new living quarters, and some Konoha Points." The tanned man said, his cheerful demeanour never once leaving. "Go into the next room and there will be a couple of guards and a small selection of clothing you will be able to take three pairs of shirts, three pairs of pants, three pairs of socks and underpants and one pair of shoes. You might also want to ask them were to find your new living quarters before you leave." The man added, smiling, Naruto nodded.

"Thanks," The blond replied, feeling a little off put. Why was a prison being so, well there was no better word for it, nice to it's prisoners? "Can I know your name?" The blond asked, the scared man shrugged before nodding.

"Iruka," He replied, Naruto smiled at the prison guard.

"Thanks Iruka," He said before walking through the next set of doors going further into the prison, the next room was similar to the first it was sparse, rows of simple no nonsense clothing was on shelves. A pair of masked guards were near the door to the next room, or was it the exit? Naruto honestly wasn't sure.

The blond snagged, three pairs of black pants and three pairs of long sleeved grey shirts along with a pair of black sneakers before going into the changing room provided and getting out of the orange prison jumpsuit that he had been dressed in. As much as Naruto loved orange even he had to admit that a whole jumpsuit of orange was way to much. The blond walked over to the guards, he noted their different masks, one a cat and the other a weasel. They gave him a quick search before the weasel produced a key and took off his handcuffs.

"My advice," The masked guard stated as he removed the handcuffs. "Go to your living quarters straight away after that read the guide book, there will be food inside your living quarters. There will be enough for you to eat for two days, you will have an appointment tomorrow for orientation, the time and place will be inside your information pack." The guard stated before standing back and opening up the metal door behind him, Naruto walked through giving the weasel masked guard a nod of thanks. The blond walked out into the prison, barely hearing the mutter of 'Fucking monster' from the cat masked guard, oh there was the racism and bigotry he was waiting to hear.

**XXX**

Naruto sighed as he placed down the small info booklet, it was informative he would give it that much. The prison was basically an enclosed city, twelve districts in total district A through district L, some districts repeated in function but basically the lay out was. District A through C were housing while districts. While Districts D,E and F were the work districts where the inmates of the prison could work for Konoha Points, the currency of the prison. This currency would allow them to buy things like food, furniture, ect. The work was everything from manual labouring jobs through to things like food preparation and computer programing.

District G was the 'education' district, where one could find things like schools and higher learning facility's teaching everything from abstract theories on science to more practical skills like carpentry, for a price of course.

District H, home to the hospital and chemists, any and all medical supplies could be brought here from headache tablets to bandages. District I was home to the malls, yes plural. Everything from clothing to furniture and food was stocked, there was also a bank.

District J was the recreation district and covered everything from restaurants, gyms, movie theatres and even martial arts dojos. Next up was District K which was one huge well maintained park for just that little bit of nature.

Finally there was District L, The Arena. The prisons didn't pay for themselves after all and while the government was happy to pay for 'violent monsters' to be locked up they didn't want to pay any more than they had to. Hell the only reason that Chakra users that weren't young enough to be turned into emotionless weapons were left alive was power. If a nation was invaded they had their army and their trained Charka attack dogs to defend them but they could also use the prisoners all the government would have to do was offer them better living conditions and some prisoners would help fight bolstering the armies numbers in case of conflict. It was a tedious balance really. But hell it kept Naruto alive so who was he to complain?

At any rate, the idea behind The Arena was simple. Put one, two, hell even a group of Chakra users into a place where they can fight each other and charge fees for the public to watch. The Arena did all kind of matches, Relay races, One on One matches, Two on Two matches, Team matches, and on rare occasions even Death Matches, though in the case of Death Matches it had to be agreed to by both fighting parties. The public ate it up, the pay per view matches made millions and some even paid exorbitant fees to go to The Arena in person to see the matches live. Though the public could only see the matches live once a month they were held every week on a Sunday.

As for why anyone would bother competing in a fight when they could earn money by just working in other districts it was simple. The money that a fighter made of winning, and yes they were only paid if they won, was the same as a person could make doing six days of work if they were a manual labourer and the money only went up from there.

The money, Konoha Points or KP for short, that the inmates made was spent on goods and services like food, gym memberships, movies, furniture and others things that one could find around the prison. Hell if one made enough they could actually buy better living quarters. For all intents and purposes Konoha prison was a city and the inmates were its population.

The reason that the Chakra users were allowed so much freedom was so they were less likely to attempt to escape or rebel, and so far the theory seemed to have worked out pretty well. The only thing that was different from the inmates to the people living outside was that they couldn't leave Konoha's walls and they had the option of fighting in the arena.

Another reason that the inmates were treated so well, especially when one considered that they were supposedly prisoners, was to stop Chakra users from joining the Rebellion. The Rebellion was a coalition of various underground groups of Chakra users that were dedicated to overthrowing the current regime and allowing Chakra users to live side by side with ordinary humans, honestly Naruto could sympathise with their goals.

However like many Naruto did not possess the desire to fight and die for those goals, so when Chakra users were given the option of a life on run, joining the Rebellion or going to Konoha and having a relatively stable life without needing to look over their shoulder all the time it was inevitable that a lot of Chakra users chose to go to Konoha or one of the other prisons.

Honestly it looked bad for the Rebellion, sure they had managed to survive the last seventy or so years since they had started loading Chakra users into the prisons. But they would run out of people who wanted to join them over people who wanted a life where they didn't have to look over their shoulders.

Naruto stood up and stretched, the sun was just starting to go down, he could see it outside the window. The blonds living quarters was actually an apartment, two bedroom one bathroom, the paint was peeling off the walls and it kind of smelled of mold, not that it surprised the blond. The new inmates were apparently always given the worst accommodation so that they had more of an incentive to work their way up into a new apartment. Naruto would also be sharing with someone though he had no idea who, they hadn't shown up yet.

The apartment was most definitely not fully furnished, all that was inside, well that Naruto had been able to find at any rate, were two beds, two cups, two alarm clocks and three rolls of toilet paper. Nothing else, the only food that Naruto had been able to find were twelve ration bars so that meant that he needed to get a job and fast, still it shouldn't be to hard to find something as a manual labourer, it was really his only skill beside fighting. Honestly when Sunday came Naurto was thinking of putting his name down to fight, it was a skill and he could make money off it so why not after all.

The blond pulled a ration bar out of the small pantry and opened the rather small package, it didn't look very appetising but hey as long as it kept him alive right? He took a bite, well at least it didn't taste bad, in fact it didn't taste like anything. He yawned and filled his glass with some tap water while making a mental note to buy a fridge, Naruto honestly preferred chilled water over room temp.

Naruto took another bite of the bar and looked at the piece of paper that had been inside the information package. It was an address and a time for his orientation tomorrow, he needed to find the place by ten am, it was in G District. The blond finished the ration bar in one last bite and downed the remainder of the water in a single gulp, he heard a key in the lock of the apartment, it seemed his room mate had finally arrived. The kitchen was directly next to the front door so Naruto just turned to his left as the door was opened revealing a red headed woman, eh well what did you know no gender separation, who's dumbfuck idea was that?

She just looked at him for a second, Naruto used it to quickly check if she was powering up any form of Chakra attack, she wasn't, at least not yet. The woman was of average hight at, and he was guessing, one hundred and sixty to one sixty five centimetres or around five and a half feet. Violet eyes, well that was a new one he hadn't seen violet eyes before. Black Chinese shoes, black pants and a blue long sleeved shirt adorned the woman's body while she carried her spares and her information packet in her arms. She gave him a once over before look Naruto dead in the eye.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, her voice was dark, no threat of violence, not yet anyway, but she was clearly not please by the fact he was here. Naruto held his hands up in a universal gesture of surrender the woman loosened up a little.

"Name's Naruto and I'm your new room mate." The blond stated, being very, very, careful not to sound to overjoyed or even slightly exited by the fact, he had seen people near their breaking point before and this woman, whoever she was, was close, very, very, close. Her Chakra spiked slightly, Naruto's own spiked in response, the woman was getting ready to attack if he proved hostile, Naruto himself was just getting ready to fight back if that happened.

"Can you prove it?" The woman asked, Naruto nodded before pointing to the bedroom that he had claimed for himself.

"Yes I can," He said slowly like someone who was trying not to spook a dangerous animal. "My living quarters assignment sheet is in my room if you'll let me go get it." The woman nodded and backed slowly into the living room, always keeping her eyes on him. Naruto for his part walked slowly into his room and snagged the assignment sheet off the floor before walking back to the living room and placing the notice on the floor before sliding it towars the woman. First rule when someone was at breaking point do not approch them if you can help it, especially if you didn't know exactly what pushed them there it could set them off.

The woman looked down at the assignment sheet for a few seconds before her Chakra receded, Naruto allowed his own to fade in response, no point in antagonising the woman if he could help it. The red head looked him in the eye for a second.

"Kushina" She offered, Naruto just nodded at learning the woman's, Kushina's, name. The red head walked towards the unclaimed room.

"Check your information pack before you go to bed," Naruto advised. "It should tell you when we need to go to the orientation tomorrow." The red head nodded, Naruto wasn't put off by the non verbal response. The fact she was responding with out snapping at him was a small miracle in and of itself. The door to the opposing room shut and Naruto turned back and entered his own he knew there would be no more words spoken tonight. So this was it huh?

"Welcome to Konoha," The blond muttered to himself before shutting the door to his room.

**Chapter One- End. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Naruto of the White Thunderstorm**

**Arc One: Welcome to Konoha**

**Authors note-**

Well here's chapter two, after I fixed up the last chapter and put it up I just couldn't get the story out of my head. So this chapter is a bit of an information dump along with the introduction of the first villain of the story. Welcome Mizuki, yes the same guy that tricked Naruto into stealing the Forbidden Scroll in the Anime, though he will be far more dangerous in this.

This one is kind of an Info dump chapter though I tried to make it as interesting as I could I'm not sure how well I managed it.

At any rate there is another small Authors note at the bottom of the chapter, now that, that's out of the way lets get started shall we.

**Story Start-**

Naruto yawned as he walked down one of the main streets of Konoha Prison, he'd left the apartment twenty minutes ago. The red head had still been asleep, oh well not his problem. Kushina didn't want to get up and go to the orientation that simply wasn't his problem. The blond cast his eyes around as he walked through District F, so far from what he'd seen there were cameras and regular patrols of guards on the main streets.

But when you started to get away from the main streets and further into the prison in certain areas the patrols began to become less frequent and the cameras weren't there at all. Naruto was willing to bet that there was a lot of things going on in these less regulated areas that he really didn't want to know about. Still it meant he would need to be careful if he ever needed to take a shortcut down a back ally, not that he wouldn't have been careful normally but he would go the extra mile from now on.

Naruto hummed to himself as he passed the intersection and crossed over into District G, before making his way over to the information board. Personally Naruto found it quite handy that at the beginning of every District there was a board that listed off the businesses and facilities as well as were they could be found, it didn't take the blond long to find out where he was going and amble into the Education District his eyes moving around and taking in the sights.

Honestly it looked like any large university. The entirety of the Education District was kind of like one gigantic university campus, it was honestly kind of impressive. Naruto had been on to university campuses a number of times, okay most of the time it was to rob them but that was beside the point, from what he could see the facilities were quite good as well. Not state of the art but they were good. The blond just looked at the signs at a street corner.

"C block, C block, C block" Naruto muttered to himself. Before perking up as he saw sign pointing the way he wanted to go and walked off humming. Allowing his eyes to drift around, people all around him were just going about their everyday business it looked a lot like every other city he had ever been inside. The blond slowly ambled up into the first C Block building he came to and stopped in front of the office, the woman inside had brown hair and purple markings on the side of her face.

"Orientation?" She questioned.

"Orientation." Naruto confirmed, the woman nodded and looked down at computer screen in front of her.

"Go up the stairs to the first floor turn right and the room is the fifth door on your left." She replied, Naruto nodded and walked away. The inside of the building was standard white, the floors were tiled green but the rest was all white, it kind of reminded him of a hospital, which was kind of unfortunate because Naruto hated hospitals with a passion. Finding the room was easy enough and Naruto chose to forgo knocking and just let himself in. The room was sparely furnished and was clearly a theory room, twenty desks facing a single whiteboard.

There were some people already inside, the guy with the duck ass hairdo and the girl with the blond pony tail were the only prisoners while standing in front of the whiteboard was the prison guard Iruka from the day before. Though there was a marked difference between the way Iruka had looked yesterday and the way he looked today. The day before the prison guard had been in mostly casual clothes, now however he was wearing the full grey armour of the guards and a dolphin mask was sitting on the desk in front of him. A short ninjato was on his back while a flick baton rested on the man's waist. The tanned man smiled at the blond and waved him inside after he opened the door.

"You're early that's good." Iruka stated cheerfully, a smile on his face. "Naruto right?" The guard inquired politely, gaining a nod from the blond.

"That's right," Naruto replied, "and you're Iruka correct?" The guard nodded and pointed to one of the many available seats in the room.

"Sit down, we start in ten minutes." Iruka informed the blond who nodded and took a seat half way to the back of the classroom. The others he had seen on the bus slowly filed into the room over the next ten minutes, the pineapple haired man looking like he didn't want to be there and his big boned friend trying to motivate him to pay attention to what was about to be said, Kushina was the last person to come into the room.

She was still wearing the same clothes as the day before, her body language was still guarded and suspicious but she didn't look like she was about to snap and attack somebody, something that Naruto was grateful about. He really didn't like the idea of walking on eggshells inside of his own home. Speaking of his home he should stop by the mall on his way home and pick up a towel for himself, having a working shower was nice and all but he still needed to dry himself off after. Iruka's eyes darted over the assembled prisoners quickly before looking down at a sheet of paper on the table in front of him and ticking something off.

"Okay everybody," The guard said, still keeping his cheerful tone. "As you all know this is your orientation, mostly I'm just going to cover a few different things that were in the information pack that you were given yesterday in greater detail. After that we'll have a Q and A session and then your free to leave." Iruka informed the assembled group. Iruka took in a deep breath as if considering what to talk about first.

"First on our agenda would be the ground rules for this place," the scared man informed the group. "Konoha is basically run like a city so expect all of the same laws that you guys abided by when you lived outside its walls. Be aware we do have more cell like accommodation if you do break the law and get caught." Iruka advised, "if you are caught punishment ranges from a fine to actually being inside a cell for a few months or even years, depending on the severity of the crime you could also be looking at public execution." Iruka turned and added those points to the whiteboard behind him.

"There's no curfew so you don't have to be inside by any particular time, so when you get back home will mostly be affect by what time your job ends but we'll talk more about that later. Other than that there are seals placed all around the prison to detect the output of Chakra so guards know where to go if a fight is started." Iruka took a deep breath before exhaling loudly.

"As you all might have noticed," The tanned man continued. "In certain parts the prison gets more and more lawless, patrols are less frequent and there are no cameras at all, the seals are still there though. That being said however it will take guards longer to reach you in those areas so please stay out of them if you can. The time it may take the guards to reach you is anywhere between five minutes to an hour depending on where you are." Iruka advised making Naruto make a mental note to stay out of those areas for his own well being.

"Fighting is only for The Arena," Iruka continued, before looking down guiltily, he didn't like what he was about to say next, Naruto could see it. "That being said some guards, if not all, will just let fights continue if they see them in the more lawless zones unless someone is about to die. If you have to go into places where the guard patrols are less frequent take another person with you," Iruka advised. "At least that way if everything goes to hell you have someone to watch your back." Naruto nodded, that was good advice. Now all he need was to find someone he could trust to watch his back.

"Okay that more or less does it for rules, I'll go over the important points again before you leave so don't worry to much if you missed something there." Iruka told the assembled prisoners who all nodded back. "The next subject to be covered is work, you can find dozens of different kinds of it in Konoha. More or less everyone has some kind of thing for you to do." Iruka informed the group, "From manual labouring to things like soil testing and even computer programing. The work you guys will do is divided into three different kinds of contracts, a Weekly contract, a Monthly contract and a Yearly contract." Iruka continued while writing the three contracts up onto the whiteboard in blue.

"The weekly contract is the one that most people who fight in The Arena take. As it is more flexible than the others. If you agree to a weekly contract then you will get paid slightly less than a person on a Monthly contract or a Yearly contract however there are also slightly less draw backs to a weekly contract if you a fighting in The Arena." Iruka continued writing some more information up onto the board.

"For example today is Tuesday if one of you signed a weekly contract today you would be required to work from today through to Saturday after that your contract would expire, you could fight in the arena on Sunday. But lets also say that you got injured on Sunday and couldn't work again until Wednesday." Iruka took a deep breath in.

"If you were on a Monthly contract you would have missed days of work and when you went back you would only be paid half wages until those days had been made up, so since you missed two days of work you would be on half wages until Saturday." Iruka added the information onto the board.

"Where as if you went back to your employer and took out another Weekly contract you would make more money than you would if you were being paid half wages. This is why most Arena fighters take the Weekly option so that they don't get docked pay should they need to miss some work. However the Monthly and Yearly contract options also have their own merits." Iruka told the now quite intrigued class of six.

"Not only are people on Monthly and Yearly contracts paid more than people on Weekly contracts, but they also have better job security. Lets use the Monthly contract as an example, a Restaurant puts up a Monthly contract for more help because they need someone as their business is picking up but after you sign the contract the business goes down and they no longer need you. The Restaurant still has to employ you and pay you for the entire month because that is the contract you signed." Iruka stated, getting another round of nods.

"Where as if you had signed a Weekly contract they would have been able to drop you once the week was over as they no longer needed you. So the basic difference between a Weekly, Monthly and Yearly contract is that the Weekly contract provides you with more flexibility while the Monthly and Yearly options provide better job security." Iruka concluded getting a few nods out of the class.

"Next on the agenda is," Iruka said before looking down at the sheet of paper in front of him. "Ah, the Hospital and then the Bank. Okay as you should all know if you read the information pack the Hospital is located in District H, if you ever have any medical problems go there as there are no GP's anywhere in Konoha." Iruka informed them, Naruto filed that bit of information away, that could be important.

"You can also buy things like headache medicine and bandages from the chemist that is attached to the hospital. There are jobs available there for things like orderlies and paper pushers as well as healers if any of you have the ability to control healing Chakra this place will be right up your ally." Iruka informed the group before looking back at the sheet of paper.

"The Bank, it seems, is our next order of business," Iruka informed the prisoners. "This ones actually kind of short so it shouldn't take to long. To put things simply you've all used a Bank before right?" Iruka asked before continuing after getting a nod from all six Chakra users. "Well it's the same thing, go in there and give them your name and Prisoner ID number, which is also in that information pack that you were given yesterday. They will set you up with an account and a card," Iruka snapped his fingers as if just realising something.

"Also while I think about it," The tanned man added. "Any and all mail will be delivered to your current addresses so you don't need to worry about picking mail up from anywhere, at any rate that does it for the Bank. I don't think there's to much more to go over." Iruka informed the group before looking down at the piece of paper again.

"Okay, it's actually this place next," Iruka stated. "So the Education District is pretty straight forward. They can teach you guys everything from Carpentry to Physics, I'm not going to go to in depth here because if you're really that interested you can pick up an information brochure on the way out from the office downstairs." The guard stated flatly getting an understanding nod from the group.

"Moving right along," The man stated looking down once again at the piece of paper. "Okay next up is District I, the Mall District. This one is pretty straight forward everyone. This is the place to buy new clothes and furnishings for your house. As well as food, and while we're on the subject of District I it is also home to the Real Estate agent so if you guys are planning on buying a new apartment, or even just to window shop, then this is where to go." Iruka took in a deep breath.

"Next is District J, the Recreation District. Which is exactly what it sounds like, here you'll find things like Restaurants, Movie theatres, Gyms, Martial Art Dojo's and even Night Clubs, if any of you were thinking about doing a job in hospitality then your best bet is heading to District J and looking around for help wanted adverts." Iruka looked back down at the sheet. "District K is one huge park, I shouldn't even need to cover that with you." Iruka stated bluntly before looking back down at the sheet and sighing.

"Finally we have District L, or The Arena, whichever you personally prefer." The guard stated, his voice somewhat grim. "As I assume you all know matches are held every Sunday from Eight am through to Ten pm." Iruka informed the group. "The types of matches that are held are simple and quite straight forward, they range from One on One fights, Two on Two fights, One on Two fights, Three on Three fights, Capture the flag, Group battles and even Death matches. Though in the case of Death Matches they have to be agreed upon by both sides." Iruka took a deep breath in.

"The fights inside of The Arena are broadcast throughout the nations on Pay-Per view television and it's how the Prison make the majority of its money. If you wish to fight then you can put your name down by going into The Arena any day before Sunday and putting your name down for a match. As well as putting down what kind of fight that you want to participate in, you don't need to worry too much about who you're fighting as you will be assigned someone of around your skill level." Iruka took in a deep breath and added the relevant information to the board.

"You guys, if you decide to fight, will start off as E ranks. The lowest of the low," The tanned guard stated. "Above that is a D rank, then a C rank and so on and so forth until you hit A rank. In E rank through C rank all you have to do in order to move up to the next rank is win three fights in a row. With people of the same rank or the rank above you," Iruka informed the group, Naruto noted two others beside himself nodding enthusiastically at that news. The duck haired man and Kushina, that was kind of surprising, Naruto hadn't pegged the red head for a fighter. Though in hindsight Naruto supposed he really didn't know Kushina well enough to peg her as anything.

"After becoming a C rank moving up becomes harder, every six months there is a tournament held at a different prison, in the coming six it's Konoha's turn. Not everyone is invited to compete, only C ranks and above, and only if they have a good record of not only winning fights but of making them entertaining for the audience." Iruka told the assembled prisoners as he added the information to the whiteboard.

"In order to move above C rank you have to compete in the tournament and not only do well but prove that your not only strong enough but skilled enough to move up to B rank by proving yourself against the fighters from other prisons." Iruka stated, taking a deep breath in. "The same basic thing can be said for A rank fighters as well but you can always address that later if you decide to fight. At any rate The Arena pays well, even an E rank fighter earns as much off of one win as a manual labourer earns in four days on a monthly contract and the money only goes up from there." Iruka took in a deep breath and looked down at the sheet of paper.

"All this being said however I think we should talk about the pros and cons of fighting in The Arena." The tanned guard told his charges. "The pros naturally are the money and the fact that you only get paid more and more as you move up through the ranks. However there are also a number of downsides to The Arena, the first, and most prominent, being that you don't get paid unless you win, losers get nothing." Iruka told the group with hard eyes.

"The second is the medical costs, while the Hospital can heal things like broken arms and cracked ribs in a matter of hours you still have to pay them the service, it's not free. Also even if they can heal your bones in a matter of hours you still need to keep from using the limb for a day or two after, just to make sure it's healed properly. So you will most probably lose a few days of work as well, keep this in mind if you do sign up." Iruka sighed and looked down at the piece of paper in front of him.

"Oh, one last thing on the matter of The Arena, you can buy weapons to fight with inside it. These can be brought at The Arena itself and all have a series of seals on them to stop you guys from taking them outside the place so be aware of that. Also if any of the guards catch you trying to take the weapons outside they can throw you in a cell for a fair amount of time on top of fining you so just be aware of that." Iruka finished before looking down at the sheet one last time.

"Some more advice," Iruka added looking back up at the assembled group. "Most people who fight in The Arena work night shift so they can go to the gym during the day and have some sparing partners so that's something to keep in mind of you do sign yourselves up."

"Well that looks to be about it," The tanned guard stated before looking up at the points he had written on the board. "I'll just run over the major points again before we go into the Q and A section." Naruto nodded, this had been informative.

**XXX**

Naruto yawned and leaned back onto the side of the Ramen bar. Iruka had been right Konoha was crawling with work if you knew where to look for it. Naruto liked to think he had got quite a lot done after the Q and A session with the scarred guard. He had managed to go open a bank account, got his card, went out and brought that towel that he wanted, along with some soap and shampoo. Then taken a quick walk around District K, the park was beautiful by the way. Before heading over to District L and signing himself up for a one on one match at The Arena, he had one at Ten am. After all that Naruto had gone out job hunting and in one of the small side streets of District J he had found exactly what he was looking for.

The Ramen bar wasn't a large place but neither was it a small one. The bar housed twelve tables and could handle around twenty people at once, thirty if they were pushing it. The place was owned by Teuchi Ichiraku, a forty three year old man who was quite affable and easy going. While he daughter Ayame waited tables, the two Ichiraku shared the Chakra ability to manipulate water which was actually kind of cool to watch.

Naruto's job at Ichiraku's was simple, he helped wait tables, did the dishes and threw people out who were causing a disruption or were drinking to much. All in all he was the gopher of Ichiraku Ramen and could honestly say that, so far at least, he enjoyed his job. The blond could tell that the Ramen bar was at least moderately successful considering that this was a Tuesday night and it had fifteen people in it.

Ichiraku was also a night shift job as the Ramen bar was open from six thirty at night through to three thirty in the morning. As it catered for people who worked Night shift to come and eat on their lunch break, it was for this reason that the Ramen bar was situated very close to the entrance of District J so that people could find it easily if they followed the lights. Considering it was Ten O'clock at night and there were fifteen people in the place Naruto could honestly say that Ichiraku Ramen did good business.

Teuchi had been quite understanding when he had asked for a one week contract and just looked at him knowingly before agreeing. The older man had told him that they would use the next few days as a test for if he wanted Naruto to work for him any longer and if the blond did a good job then Teuchi would have no problem offering him one week contracts every week if he wanted them. Naruto, naturally, had agreed readily, the blond knew a good deal when he saw one.

It was twelve thirty at night when everything started to go to hell, it was another hour or two before most night shift workers went on their break so the Ramen bar was fairly empty, the fifteen people that had been in for dinner had long since left. There was just a single person eating at the back, a hood up so no one could see his face. So it kind of surprised Naruto when the sliding door to the bar opened and in stepped a familiar looking red head. Kushina saw him and gave him a quick once over, before shrugging and walking to the counter where Teuchi awaited to take her order.

A few minutes later the red head was sitting at a table happily slurping down a bowl of Salt Ramen with some tea, Naruto had no idea what kind of tea it was, but he knew it was Salt Ramen, he could smell it. Naruto could tell the girl was slightly less on edge than she was yesterday as well, either from exhaustion from working or just because she was feeling better, the blond had no idea which. So long as she didn't blow up and try to attack him Naruto really didn't care. It was around five minutes after that when things started going downhill.

When the door to the Ramen bar opened Naruto expected another customer, he was rudely surprised when a group of four walked inside all wearing the same outfit. Black sneakers, pants and hoodie with the bones of the human body on them, each of the four was also wearing a masks with the outline of a skull, they were really going for the bad anime filler villain mook look, and in Naruto's humble opinion they were pulling off the disposable pawn look quite well. The four swaggered in, after years of spending time in the underbelly of society Naruto had learned a few things, especially things about people like this.

The first thing he learned, they were arrogant. The second, normally they couldn't fight worth a damn. Third, to counter this they generally travelled in packs. Not that it makes a hell of a lot of a difference, four times zero is still zero. Finally, they all felt like the world either owed them something or that they had some kind of god given right to steal from others.

Now Naruto had spent a lot of time as a thief, and he liked to consider himself as a very good thief. But these people made him sick at the idea of stealing something again, mugging people, or extorting them for that matter was not something he ever stooped to when he had another option. The only times Naruto had ever stooped that low was when the Government was on his tail and he needed to bail out of a city and fast. These four had other options, they just didn't want to use them. Lazy bastards.

The first masked joker headed to the counter, the second went to Kushina, the third to Ayame and the fourth to him. They seemed to have missed the man in the back who was still quietly observing what was going on. Not that it was hard to do that the man seemed to be very good at concealing himself from others.

"Old man things around this place can get pretty rough." The first masked moron stated to Teuchi who just looked at the man blankly. "It's at times like this that you need people watching out for you, you know what I mean?" The leader continued, leaning on the counter while the other three got a little closer to their targets. "Mizuki understands old man," The masked mook assured Teuchi.

"He really does know that we all need to look out for each other. That's why he's been protecting this place against things like vandals and muggers, but now Mizuki needs your help old man. After all he has to pay his highly skilled protection squad to keep things under control, you need to pay for that service old man, or who knows people might start vandalising this wonderful bar of yours or even robbing your customers, you know what I'm saying?" The masked moron finished, Naruto threw a quick looked at Teuchi who nodded.

The blond threw a sucker punch at the masked douchebag in front of him, doubling the man over as it impacted with his stomach. There was a slight sizzling and buzzing sound from where his fist had impacted with the man's sternum. The blond followed up by planting a hay-maker into the side of the man's head, over on the other side of the bar he saw Ayame plant her knee into the groin of the idiotic masked bastard that went near her, Naruto shivered, that was brutal. The blond leapt forward, grabbing the man near Ayame and pulling him in close punching him in the stomach, hard. The sound of buzzing could be heard from the impact point. The blond drew back his fist and punched the man again, he could feel the man becoming winded on the second blow and let him drop. His left leg swinging up and soccer kicking him in the face. Blood sprayed from the man's mouth as the skin was ripped open, Naruto allowed himself a small smile.

Naruto spun on the balls of his feet, just in time to catch a hay-maker from the one that had been trying to extort Teuchi. The blond felt his brain rattle around in his skull as he was pushed back by the force of the punch, blood pooled inside his mouth. Naruto shook it off and faced the masked man again. Swallowing the blood in his mouth Naruto's hands came up near his head, elbows out, while coming up onto the balls of his feet, imitating a boxer. While Naruto would admit he had never had any formal training of any kind he had learned a few things just from watching fights, not to mention being in them more times than he cared to count.

Kushina had started moving the second she had seen Naruto punch the first moron in the gut. The red heads hand lashed out and grabbed the man across from her before slamming his head into the table. The dull thud let her know she had made a good connection, she let go and jumped out of her seat allowing her opponent to get up and charge at her like a wild animal. The man let loose with a vicious hay-maker at her head, Kushina fought the urge to sigh in disgust. Unlike the, obviously untrained, man she had actually taken the time to learn hand to hand combat before she was dumped in this place. It was her hobby.

As the punch got closer Kushina stepped in, her forearms coming up and blocking the blow, she pivoted dragging his arm forward and burring her elbow in his stomach. She could feel the air leave the morons lungs and smiled, the red head gripped his wrist tightly with her left hand and twisted so that her back was facing the man. Her right arm whipped up and her hand grabbed his tricep, succuring it tightly. She twisted her body and swung him down, using the man's own weight against him, a perfectly executed shoulder throw.

As the skull mask wearing man landed, she could hear the scream of pain that wanted to come up from his throat but couldn't due to lack of air. Kushina's right arm came back and she dropped to her right knee bringing her fist down on her attackers skull, there was a dull thud as his skull made contact with the ground, knocking him out cold. Kushina just smiled to herself for a job well done and turned back to watch the fight between the blond and the remaining moron. From what the red head could tell the last one was a slightly better fighter than the other two, slightly being the keyword. They were lucky none of them had the chance to use their Chakra abilities, thankfully surprise was a powerful weapon.

Naruto faced down the last man, his hands still in his loose approximation of a boxing stance. The man he was facing down lifted one of his hands and a small spark of fire began dancing over his palm. The skull masked man smirked obviously thinking he had the advantage.

"Now lets all calm down before this lovely bar goes up in flames." The man advised, Kushina smiled from behind him and picked up her empty Ramen bowl before throwing it at the opposite wall, it shattered on impact and the fire wielding Chakra user did the dumbest thing possible, he looked towards it. Naruto was not one to let a chance like that slide, his right and left fists crackled as what looked like small amounts of white lightning. The blond leapt forward, his right hey-maker smashing into the side of the man's head, there was the sound of buzzing and a slight sizzling sound as the strike shocked the man and burned some of the flesh on the left side of his face.

The blond followed up by jabbing the masked moron twice in the face, each strike eliciting another buzzing noise and a slight sizzle. Naruto's hands wrapped around the man's head, a classic, if sloppy, Muay Thai clinch, the blond let loose with a barrage of knees into the man's body and smiled as he felt them connect. He let go, the masked idiot dropped to his knees holding his gut, Naruto drew his right arm back white lightning circled the fist emitting a buzzing noise, the blond dropped his fist into the back of the man's head and was rewarded by the sound of a breaking nose as his head met the floor of the Ramen bar.

At the back of the bar the man still watched going over the fight in his mind. He reached up and ran his hand through his black hair as he removed the hood from his head, ruffling his bowl shaped hair cut. Gai went over what he had just seen in his head again, had they been in any real danger he would have stepped in, but as they weren't Gai had been happy to let the newbies take care of it.

From what he could see the red head already had some training in hand to hand, from the look of that shoulder throw he would guess she was based in Judo, while the blond was more like a brawler with a high fight IQ an interesting pair. Considering that the blond could send out electric shocks by hitting people with his fist Gai could probably make the assumption that he could do it with his feet as well but didn't because he didn't want to ruin his shoes. This was not at all what he had been expecting to see tonight. Then again he hadn't expected to see people extorted tonight either so Gai just guessed tonight was just full of surprises.

The hand to hand expert got up from his table and made his way over to the two fighters that had just taken down the four thugs, it was only right to let them know what they were getting into after all.

"That was a good display you two, most youthful!" Gai declared getting the two to turn to him and their jaws to drop.

"Y-Y-Y-You, you're, y-y-you-'re." Naruto stated, sounding broken.

"G-G-Ga-i M-M-Maito." Kushina finished sounding equally stunned, Gai smiled how nice it was to be recognised even by the newbies. Then again how many times did one meet an A rank Arena fighter on their second day?

"Indeed I am my most youthful companions!" Gai stated, giving the two a thumbs up. Before becoming far more sombre and serious.

"While I am glad for what you did to these men I think it's important for the two of you to know exactly what you've got yourselves into." Gai stated seriously, getting a pair of uncertain nods from the two. "Those four men you took out," Gai illustrated his point by kicking one of them in the side. "Belong to a gang, as you probably both guessed." The Green Beast told the two, who nodded in return.

"They are a pain, no one knows their exact numbers but they do work under a number of leaders, Mizuki is one of them, from what I know there are three others in addition to him. If I remember correctly they are Renga, Jiga and Ruiga. These four work under a man named Aoi Rokusho a B rank Arena fighter and make up a rather large gang inside Konoha." Gai told the two new inmates who looked to be quite disturbed by the information.

"I do not like what they do and am quite glad that you decided to take those for idiots out, I would destroy the entire gang myself were it not for some extenuating circumstances." Gai told the two, he could see the next question coming but chose to let it be asked rather than just launching into the answer.

"What circumstances would those be?" Kushina asked, Naruto agreeing with the question. Standing in front of him was one of Konoha's very few A ranked fighters what sort of circumstances could stop him from taking out a small, or even a large for that matter, gang only led by a B rank fighter? Gai sighed at the question despite knowing it was coming.

"Did you know I run a Martial Arts Dojo and Gym?" Gai asked after a second, seeing Naruto and Kushina shake their heads he chose to continue. "While some of the members are C rank fighters I have no B ranks at the moment and most of the people that come to the gym are just casual members that have never once fought inside the Arena." Gai informed the two new prisoners who just nodded, still kind of shell shocked.

"While I have no doubt I could take them out given enough time there is a very good chance that because they knew they couldn't take me down that they would target my members and use them as hostages to stop me, I do not wish to put my members in danger. Most of the A ranks that could do something about Aoi have similar circumstances to me, those that do not simply don't care enough to help." Gai took a moment to consider what he was about to say next. The Green Beast blurred for a second before four distinct impacts were heard, Gai made sure there was no chance that the four were going to wake up for this conversation.

Naruto was stunned, he couldn't even see the man move, all he saw as a blur. One second Gai was in front of him, then he vanishes, he could hear the impact of fist against skull, then Gai was in front of him again, the man's speed was insane, so this was an A rank.

"Now that you have attacked Mizuki's men he will attempt to do one of two things to you." Gai continued as if he had done nothing out of the ordinary, and to him maybe he hadn't. "The first is recruit you and the second is make an example out of you." The Green Beast watched as the two made disgusted faces at the thought of joining the man.

"He won't bother Aoi with you, not yet at least." Gai assured the two. "Mizuki won't want to lose face with Aoi and risk getting replaced because four of his men got put down by two newbies." Gai assured the two, before grimacing. "From the look on your faces when I mentioned recruitment I take it you wont join them." It was a statement, not a question, but Naruto and Kushina nodded none the less. Gai seemed to consider something for a second.

"I can't do anything about this myself and I can't send anyone that has been training at my Gym for a long time to take care of it because the bastards would still target the Gym." Gai said after a second before smiling viciously.

"But you two are knew to Konoha, you have no allegiance and no one knows you," Gai said after a second as a plan began to come together in his mind. He pointed over at Kushina. "You have some formal Martial Arts training but I'm guessing that you tried to hide your Chakra ability rather than use it correct?" Gai asked, getting a nod in return he turned to Naruto. "And you are used to using your Chakra ability but have no formal training in Martial Arts correct?" Naruto nodded and Gai gained an even larger and more vicious grin.

"In that case I have an offer for the two of you." Gai said simply, getting an interested look from the two and taking it as a cue to continue. "Come to my Gym and learn to fight, you're going to go against Mizuki anyway so you may as well learn to fight. More importantly as you're newbies there is a very small chance of them actually attacking the members of my gym rather than the two of you. As for all they know you joining my gym was coincidence and neither Mizuki or Aoi will want to risk my wrath unless I start something first." Gai stated, still smiling his vicious simile and getting a pair of somewhat dumbfounded nods.

"Come to the Nice Guy Dojo a few streets over tomorrow at twelve and you can start then!" Gai assured the two giving his painted Nice Guy Pose, before nodding to Teuchi and pulling up his hood, Kushina had to ask the man one thing before he left.

"Why don't the guards take care of this?" The red head asked, Gai sighed, seeming to age years by that one question alone.

"Because most of them don't care," Gai admitted bluntly. "While there are good and fair guards they are the minority, for most of them they make us solve our own problems unless they have no other choice." Gai finished tiredly before walking out of the Ramen bar, Naruto looked down and thought about what he had just been told.

Both he and his red haired room mate were now the targets of a prison gang. On the other hand they were offer by Gai Maito to join his gym personally, so that was good. Honestly Naruto couldn't decide it God loved him or hated him. Naruto, on his second day, his SECOND DAY, had, by complete accident, managed to declare war on what was quite likely the largest prison gang in Konoha. Nauto felt the need to voice his current emotional state in the most eloquent way he had available to him.

"Well fuck."

**Chapter Two- End**

And that's a wrap, hope I explained the Gai scenario well enough in not PM me and I'll give it another try. Also while Gai has asked them to come and train at his Gym he won't be giving the lessons personally, though he will give Naruto and Kushina some free one on one training with a couple of instructors once or twice a week since he thinks they are going to need it, and they will.

See everybody next time!


	3. Chapter 3

**Naruto of the White Thunderstorm**

**Arc One: Welcome to Konoha**

**Authors Note-**

Okay I know the last chapter was more of an Info dump than anything as well as me getting the ball rolling for the first villain and story arc but, and I don't mean to sound like a whiny bitch here as I'm sure that I do right now, but five reviews for a 7000 word chapter? Really? I'll drop this train of thought here before I sound like even more of a whiny bitch than I already do, I've probably gotten my annoyance across.

Okay this chapter is a bit of set up letting everyone know Naruto and Kushina's training schedules so that if I gloss it over later at least you know what they were doing. It also tells you how they plan on making money and Gai also lets them know how he plans to help them.

It's a little subtle but I also added a couple of parts that hint at the two of them starting to accept each other. I don't really want to bash you guys over the head with the relationship sub plot of this story so be on the look out for little things every now and then that don't match with their general behaviour. Or that just seems like it was placed there for more than just to make my word count go up because it may just be important.

Now lets get started shall we.

**Story Start-**

Naruto yawned as he picked himself out of bed, today was going to be such a fun day. You know with all the training to avoid getting killed by a fucking prison gang, note the sarcasm. Naruto stumbled into the shower and hit the hot water before throwing his towel on to the side of the sink, the blond had woken up earlier than Kushina deliberately.

While he had never actually lived with a woman before Naruto had more than his fare share of one night stands and if there was one thing he had learned from them, it was that women tended to hog the hot water. If the price of a hot shower was getting up fifteen minutes earlier then so be it.

Naruto groaned in close to sexual pleasure as he stepped under the hot water, he had never gotten any tattoos. Though the blond would admit to wanting one more than once, that being said no Chakra user should ever have an overly identifying mark like a tattoo if they could help it and to be honest his golden blond hair was distinguishing enough as it was.

Naruto soaped himself up, his mind still running through the events of the night before. After Gai had left they had tied the four jokers up and Naruto had stayed near them just in case he needed to render them unconscious again. Thankfully he hadn't needed to, the Guards had turned up around an hour later asking about Chakra use.

Naruto grimaced, that was a pretty shitty reaction time no matter how you wanted to look at it. Still it was goo to know that his little electricity charged punches were probably enough to set of the detection seals or that moron with the fire had done it, either way it meant they were sensitive as hell. The guards had taken the four away to the actual cells inside the prison but if Teuchi was to be believed, and Naruto had no reason to think the old man would lie to him, then they would be out in the next couple of days by paying off the guards with Konoha Points.

Due to the fact that the guards actually lived in the prison on a six month on six month off rotating roster they could actually be bribed by paying them Konoha Points, something that Naruto knew he would be taking advantage of at a later date.

The blond stepped out of the shower and towelled himself off, before throwing on his last pair of clean clothes and walking out into the kitchen just as Kushina came out of her room yawning widely. The red head had her own towel wrapped around her body, she looked at him for a second, her violet eyes unfocused, before nodding and walking into the bathroom.

Naruto let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding, the woman was surely more controlled than she had been when he had first met her two days ago. That being said however Naruto seriously doubted that she was completely in control. Her emotions were still eating her up, she was just better at hiding it now. Kushina seemed to be the kind of person that could adapt quickly, that was good hopefully it would help both of them not get killed.

Naruto also liked to think that her beating down that mook last night had probably helped the woman relieve some stress, which was good. When Kushina blew up, and blow up she would it was only a matter of time, Naruto had no desire to be anywhere near her. He had seen elbow, shoulder throw and ground punch combo from last night and had no desire to be on the receiving end.

The blond pulled the pantry open and snagged a ration bar, his first payment from Teuchi would go in on Saturday, three days from now. So until then Naruto, and Kushina for that matter, were more or less living on ration bars, for the record he fucking hated ration bars food was meant to have a nice taste dammit!

The blond walked back into his room, he was really looking forward to getting a microwave at least then he wouldn't have to go back into his room every time he wanted to check the damn time.

It was eleven, he heard Kushina shut off the water and knew it was almost time to leave. Naruto threw on his sneakers and walked back out into kitchen to be greeted by a, thankfully now clothed, Kushina. That was an exceptionally good thing as Naruto honestly didn't think that he was going to be getting away with seeing the red head half naked twice in one day without paying for it in some way, probably by being punched.

Said red head threw him a single look at her blond room mate as if knowing what he had just been thinking before grabbing a ration bar out of the pantry and walking out the front door. Naruto followed behind Kushina not saying anything, they were going to have to fight a prison gang together but they didn't know each other.

It seemed that as far as Kushina seemed to be concerned she didn't to want to know him. Or at least that was the aura she had been giving off since he had met her. Of course Naruto probably wouldn't be able to get to really know the red head until she got over her emotional issues, and seeing what she was like on the first day those looked to be fairly extensive.

Naruto couldn't help but sigh as he saw a guard patrol walk past, it was really, really, disappointing to know that they weren't going to help either Kushina or him, that really sucked. Naruto sighed again and retuned to what he had taken to doing every time he walked down a main street of Konoha. Take note of where the cameras were and roughly when he could expect each guard patrol to pass, he hadn't given up on escape just yet and that was important information. The blond didn't notice any shifty types looking at them or any thug seeming to want to start a fight so it seemed Mizuki had yet to hear of them, or the four morons weren't out of their cells just yet, one of the two.

When the two finally arrived in District J it didn't take long to find the Nice Guy Dojo, it was easily one of the largest gyms in the District. Gai, while an amazing fighter, was supposedly very eccentric. The fact that he owned a large gym with two stories to it meant that he had some good business sense, especially since the gym looked as if it had been in business for a long time.

The outside was fairly plain, white walls all the way up to the second story where a billboard proudly proclaimed Nice Guy Dojo in metallic green with a black background.

Naruto just followed Kushina inside, allowing the red head to lead the way. The inside was something that was fairly typical of a modern Martial Arts Dojo. Thick training mats covered most of the floor with a few branching rooms being visible in near the back wall, another wall was covered in mirrors, fifteen people were already performing techniques in front of them checking their guards and rotation in the reflective surface.

Against another wall were twelve boxing bags, one of which was currently having the shit beaten out of it by a young man dressed in green spandex and orange leg warmers. Naruto winced as the man's shin hit the bag again, those kicks were brutal. Other than that however there was no weight lifting equipment, Naruto guessed that Gai probably had all of that on the second level. Dividing up the Martial Arts classes from the weight sessions.

Sitting behind the a counter was the man himself, Maito Gai who looked up and smiled at their arrival like he would at old friends. Behind Gai were a multitude of boxing gloves, hand wraps, Gi's, shin pads and even things like armoured gauntlets. Though exactly how popular the guantlets were Naruto had to wonder.

"Welcome!" Gai stated a huge smile on his face. "Always nice to see new people here, were you just looking or did you want to try a class?" The large eye browed man asked, his teeth seemingly glowing as he smiled.

Well this wasn't exactly unexpected, if Gai admitted to knowing the two in front of people then the Prison Gang that he had warned them about might think he had put them up to taking them out and target the gym, no for now it was best to act as if they had never met before.

"Well I don't know about Red here." Naruto said cheerfully, ignoring the dirty look he got from Kushina at the unoriginal nickname. "But I for one am looking to join up if you don't mind." Naruto finished rubbing the back of his head with his left hand.

"I would like to join as well," Kushina put in, before shooting Naruto another dirty look. "Do you have somewhere we could talk to discuss prices and training times?" The red head inquired getting a nod from Gai.

"Of course I do young lady," He assured Kushina as the man stood and walked out from behind the counter. "But first may I ask your names?" Gai inquired, it was at that point that Naruto realised that neither Kushina nor he had introduced themselves the night before, well that was terribly rude of them. Especially after Gai had told them exactly what they had gotten themselves into after taking out those four idiots.

"Naruto," The blond introduced himself with a sheepish smile and a handshake to the older man.

"Kushina," The red head added, also giving Gai a handshake. Though she seemed to feel as embarrassed as he did given the sheepish look on her face, it seemed that Kushina remembered not introducing herself last night as well.

Gai chose not to comment on their lack of last names, that was probably a good thing for all concerned. The only people that didn't have last names were orphans that didn't have one to start with and never chose to take one, Naruto was one of these. While the other was someone from a clan that had been disowned and cast out, Naruto honestly had no idea which one of the two Kushina was but it was probably better not to tempt fate. Fate had a nasty habit of kicking people right in the nuts when they did that.

"Gai Maito," The large man replied as he led the two into a small office at the back of the gym while call out to the young man that was kicking the bag to watch the counter. Once Naruto and Kushina had made themselves comfortable in the small office Gai pulled the door shut behind him and adopted a serious look as he dropped into his own chair.

"I'll make this short and I'll be blunt because we need to get the two of you training as soon as possible if we're to get you both fight ready by the time Mizuki decides to take a personal interest in you both." Gai told the two in a sombre tone. "To start with the training you get will not be free," Gai held up a hand to forestall any arguments that may have been forthcoming.

"As I told you yesterday come here and learn how to fight and you will learn how to fight here, that I promise you. However I can't have you training here for free, if Mizuki or someone else in that gang pays off one of the guards to go over my records and sees that I am training two people for free and that these two people are the ones that are fighting him then he may think that I endorse your actions." Gai stated seriously, though he didn't seem to like what he was saying.

"And I do, however something like that could lead to my gym members getting attacked and I can't allow that to happen." Gai stated seriously, "You two will pay the normal gym fees like everyone else, you will attend class like everyone else, however I will also be giving the two of you some free one on one training with some of my instructors or myself depending on who is available at the time. This is all I can offer you at the moment, do you accept?" Gai asked, Naruto weighed his options, not that there was much to weigh. Mizuki's men would make mincemeat of him eventually if he didn't improve. It seemed that Kushina had come to the same conclusion as the two nodded.

"Good," Gai stated after a second before his brow furrowed in thought. "In order to get the two of you fight ready as quickly as possible your training regime will be brutal." The man stated after a slight pause. "What time do the two of you start your jobs at night?" Gai inquired.

"Six," The two answered, while the Ramen bar opened at six thirty Naruto needed to be there thirty minutes early in order to help set up for the night. Gai nodded and thought again for a second.

"What time do you get home?" He inquired after a second.

"Four," The two answered after a moment, huh, they were on the same hours, weird.

"Alright then, the two of you need to show up at the gym at twelve thirty every day except for Sunday's, one week you'll take Sunday off as a rest day the other I have something planned for the two of you. For the first thirty minutes you'll just do a quick warm up and stretch on your own, there is a Martial Arts class that starts at one pm for Muay Thai and another that starts at two pm for Judo." Gai turned his attention to the blond.

"Naruto the way you fought last night was like a brawler. You need to learn how to fight more efficiently and Muay Thai is one of the most efficient fighting systems on the planet. You actually used a little of it last night when you brought one of those men into a clinch and kneed him, I take it you know of the Martial Art even if you never formally practised it." Gai stated getting a nod from the blond.

"At one pm you will join the Muay Thai beginner class, it goes for one hour until two, after your done in the class you'll be doing light contact sparing with one of my instructors for thirty minutes before doing another thirty of pad rounds just to get you used to your new stance and techniques. When three pm rocks around the two of you will head up stairs to the weight room where you'll finish up your day here with a one hour strength and conditioning session." Gai stated before turning his attention to Kushina.

"Kushina while Naruto is in the Muay Thai class you'll be working on the pads and some light sparing with one of my instructors, when two pm comes around you'll join the Judo class, I don't know how good you are by what I saw last night alone but I would say that you are at least fairly good. So you will probably be working with the intermediate class right off the bat. Like Naruto when three pm comes around you will head up for strength and conditioning in the weights room up stairs." Gai said sternly leaving no room for an argument, the red head nodded and Gai sighed before turning to his next point of business.

"Have either of you signed yourselves up for an arena fight this weekend?" He asked and got a pair of nods in return. "Very well, do not sign up again after your fight is finished." The master Martial Artist told the two, his voice hard.

"Why?" Naruto asked somewhat cautiously. Gai moved his stern gaze to the younger man and it made Naruto want to fidget in his seat.

"Because as much as you can earn fighting in The Arena at the moment Mizuki has you in his sights, or he will soon." Gai assured the two in a grim tone. "Giving out what you can do now would be a critical mistake, make up some new techniques using you Chakra abilities later but do not fight in The Arena until we can make you both into solid C class fighters. You simply have to much to lose right now."

"But how will we get any real combat experience outside of The Arena?" Kushina asked, Naruto thought it was a valid point. Those jokers from last night didn't really count as a real threat and so they didn't really gain any combat experience that mattered by fighting them, Gai just gave a bone chilling smile, oh that wasn't good. He had seen that kind of smile before and it had never ended well for him.

"Getting the two of you real combat experience won't be a problem." Gai assured the pair, who almost shivered at the chilling smile that was still on the man's lips. "Right now the fact that no one really knows what you can do with your Chakra abilities is your life line. But just getting you some combat experience should be easy enough." Gai assured the two, his chilling smile still firmly in place.

"A few blocks over a fight club is run every Sunday by my gym, I already keep the people that associate with Mizuki and the like out and unlike the arena you can bet on the out come of matches. You'll get paid for wins, so if your smart with who you bet on and on how much the bet on them as well as winning fights then you should both be able to go home with a tidy profit. This should even help keep your Chakra abilities under wraps as the only thing allowed in the ring is pure hand to hand combat, not Chakra skills. Guess where you'll be not this Sunday coming but the one after?" Gai asked.

Naruto nodded okay that was a solid plan, oddly convenient though. Who knows maybe his luck was finally starting to turn itself around, Kushina seemed to be having at least similar thoughts considering the look on her face. Gai reached around behind him and pulled out a pair of forms.

"These are just the membership sign up sheets," Gai told the two handing the sheets over for them to look at. "We offer three options as far as payment goes, once a week, once a month or once a year. Naturally as neither of you could afford the once a year or once a month option you'll have to take the once a week payments. Though when you get the KP you may want to look into the monthly or yearly option as they are cheaper in the long run. The first payment will be taken out this Sunday coming." Gai informed the two who nodded, Naruto knew he would be looking into that when he had enough Konoha Points saved up. The blond looked down at the form.

It was pretty standard fare, Name, Age, Date of Birth, Prisoner Identification Number, What Martial Arts Course you were taking, apparently anyone in the Martial Arts program could use the weight gym up stairs free of charge. As well as take part in the fitness lessons called Boxersise that the gym offered, as people just came in for Boxersise or to use the gym up stairs they were also listed separately on the contract. After that came Weekly, Monthly or Yearly Payment, Naruto, naturally, ticked weekly which was pretty good at seventy five Konoha Points a week. That shouldn't be too hard to pay considering he was making three hundred and sixty Konoha Points a week off of Teuchi.

Still while three hundred and sixty KP a week might seem like a lot, even when one took off the seventy five that it was going to cost him to train at Gai's gym, the fact of the matter was that there were a lot of things that Naruto needed to buy.

The first was food, then some clothes, after that would come furniture and finally some tucked away for saving for a new and better apartment. After taking off the seventy five for Gai's gym Naruto would only have two hundred and eighty five Konoha Points to play with, still while he supposed he would be cutting it close at times the blond figured he would be able to deal with it. Especially if he managed to pick some winners when betting at Gai's underground fight club. Not to mention winning some fights himself.

The blond handed the form back to Gai before the A rank fighter looked at the time, it was almost one pm, well no sense in wasting time they might as well start today. Gai placed the form with Kushina's in his In tray before turning back to the two.

"Alright then, we'll work out some of the more fiddly things over the next few days but since it's almost one pm now would the two of you like to start today?" Gai asked, Naruto shrugged while Kushina cocked her head to the side.

"Sure."

"I've got no problem with starting today."

The two answered, Gai just gave them a million watt grin. Naruto could swear that his teeth were somehow shinning.

"Alright then!" Gai replied giving a fist pump. "Lets get started!" The man added eagerly, funny, all of a sudden Naruto felt a lot more unsure about doing this.

**XXX**

Oh dear sweet god this was hell!

"ROUNDHOUSE KICK!" The man in front of him yelled holding up a pair of Thai Pads across his own stomach. Naruto moved his left leg out on a forty five degree angle by a foot before pivoting on it's ball and slamming his right legs shin into the pads, his hips turning over in order to give the kick extra power.

The man who had taken the beginner lesson, Genma, had beaten one lesson into Naruto's head already, a Muay Thai fighter lived or died by their ability to deliver punishing kicks to their opponents legs and body. Something that Naruto was practising right that very second, the blond twisted his leg and came back to his normal stance. Genma smiled, the brown hair that was visible outside of his blue bandanna was matted with sweat. Genma pulled the pads into his chest and braced himself.

"KNEE!" The brown haired man roared, Naruto responded instantly. The blonds hands shot out grabbing around Genma's head, and pulling him down. A slightly better Muay Thai clinch then he had been able to perform the day before, he just needed to keep his arms in a little more. Naruto's right knee came up, his hips pushing forward to deliver more power to the blow.

In Genma's own words, his knee wanted to make his opponents ribs connect with his own spine. A properly performed knee could generate more than two point five tons of force, that was enough to lift a car, and while Naruto's knee was no where near that powerful it was a marked improvement from the ones he had used the night before.

The proper hip movement allowing him to generate far more power than he had been able to the night before when he wasn't using his hips. Naruto twisted back to his starting position, his breathing coming out in ragged gasps. Dear sweet fucking Christ the man was a slave driver. Genma smiled about to make his knew student unleash another attack when the timer next to them went off and the brown haired man removed the Thai Pads from his arms.

"Okay you good job today rookie." The man praised, Naruto smiled feeling slightly better about the hour light sparing followed by the thirty minutes three minute long pad rounds he had endured.

"See you tomorrow at the same time," Genma said walking towards the locker room, no doubt to have a shower and put on some new clothes as the brown haired man's were soaked with sweat. Not that Naruto could say he looked any better.

His normally spiky blond hair was almost plastered to his face by sweat and his breathing was ragged even as he almost inhaled water to get rehydrated. Why did he agree to do this again? Oh right the Prison Gang that would be looking to have his head on a pike in a week or less, wonderful.

Naruto looked down at his exercise clothes, a pair of MMA shorts and a T-shirt with the word Mushin on the front in black with a white background, the rest of the shirt was a dark blue. Both the shorts and the T-shirt were absolutely covered in sweat from his exertions and he still had a fair amount of time to go.

One hour of weight training to be exact, Gai had already told him what muscles he needed to work on, all of them naturally. But mainly Naruto needed to work on his lower body for now. Due to all of his years of brawling while, for the most part, imitating a boxer. Naruto's upper body strength was fairly passable, but now as a Muay Thai user, he believed that the correct term for a Muay Thai practitioner was a Nak Muay but Naruto wasn't sure, he found his leg strength somewhat lacking.

The blond stood off of the bench and made his way to the second level to continue his personal mission of waking up the next morning in as much pain as humanly possible. The upper level weight gym wasn't anything extremely flashy but it was exactly what Naruto needed. The weight gym was around the same size as the dojo below and had a multitude of equipment from treadmills to chin up bars and other workout machines that Naruto had no idea what he would do with if he used them.

Naruto just made his way over to the leg press and sat down placing his feet against it and pushed. The weight it was on at the moment seemed to be good for him. It was somewhat hard to push but not overly difficult and it meant that he could do a fair few reps in one set before resting.

Naruto pushed out with his legs again, twenty reps each set after that he could rest for a few seconds or even a minute or two before starting again. After he was done on this Naruto was going to go use the bag for awhile, practice his stance and kicks some more as Genma said he was okay for a rookie. Unfortunately he couldn't stay as a rookie because people would be looking to bust his head in soon and he couldn't afford to not know how to fight properly when the stronger ones started showing up.

Kushina came up not long after Naruto had started, right when he had begun his second set on the leg press. The red head just gave her blond room mate a single nod before jumping on a treadmill and turning it on. From what Naruto could see Kushina was running at a fairly moderate pace but he could already tell that after what she had done today keeping up that pace for an extended period would be murder on the red head.

Still the treadmill was another good option when he finished with the leg press, but then again so was the rowing machine or like he had originally planned, the bag. Naruto let out a grunt as he pushed the plate back, oh god was he going to be sore in the morning.

Five sets later Naruto had decided that he was done using the leg press for the day, time to abuse some other poor part of his body. Kushina was still running on the treadmill, sweat dripping off her face as her breath came out in short gasps. Naruto walked over to one of twelve punching bags in the room and put on a pair of heavy gloves.

Under normal circumstances Naruto would have had no problem with hitting the bag with his bare knuckles to toughen them up, but now was a little different. The gloves weren't there to protect his knuckles but to add extra weight to the already thoroughly abused limbs.

Naruto breathed in deeply and looked at the clock, five, Naruto took his stance. Four, breath, in, out, perfectly controlled. Three, the blond wiped the small bit of sweat that was about to get into his eye away. Two, his right arm came out checking his distance. One, Naruto's left did the same and the blond adjusted himself slightly so his punches would all hit at full extension.

Zero, right as the clock reached twelve with it's second hand Naruto laid into the bag as hard as he could, which wasn't all that hard with the amount of energy he had left. Jab. Jab, jab, cross. Jab, cross, hook, cross, roundhouse. Naruto flowed through the combinations that he remembered, throwing elbows and knees in with regularity.

Naruto didn't know how long he hit the bag for but eventually he felt a cold jolt on the back of his neck and turned to see Kushina holding out an ice cold bottle of water. The look on his face must have been funny because the red head let out a short chuckle, Kushina looked like she wanted to laugh a little more but was to exhausted to do that.

Naruto just smiled and took the bottle with a nod of thanks and cracked the top before taking a deep gulp. Not to much though or else he may throw it back up, slowly but surely was the key. Naruto took another gulp of the water before screwing the cap back on and placing it down next to the bag he had been hitting.

The blond gave Kushina a grateful nod before turning back to his bag. The red head going over to a new piece of equipment, no words needed to be said and even if either had wanted to talk they were to exhausted to. Naruto's blue eyes swung to the clock, Kushina's violet mimicking the action unknown to the blond.

The red second hand of the clock made its way around, Naruto tensed slightly and Kushina mimicked the action. The red hand hit the twelve, Naruto's fist slammed into the bag in front of him while Kushina pulled back hard as she pushed off in the rowing machine. They still had half an hour left before they were done for the day, time to put it to good use.

**XXX**

Naruto yawned, dear god he was absolutely exhausted after that, and to think he would be going back to do it again tomorrow. Joy. The blond threw a quick look at the clock behind the bar of Ichiraku's, almost twelve thirty. It was dead quiet, no one inside besides Teuchi, Ayame and he. The door to the Ramen Bar opened and a familiar red head walked in, looking just as out of it as Naruto himself. Kushina seemed to sway slightly as she made her way to the counter. It wasn't a good sway either but that kind of sway that someone has when there completely exhausted but can't afford to go to sleep just yet.

"So how can I help you?" Teuchi asked, the ramen maker, as always, having a smile on his face and an upbeat attitude.

"Bowl of Salt Ramen please." Kushina replied, her body teetering a little to the left as she did so. "Also some red bull and V if you have it." She tacked on to her order, Teuchi nodded before turning around and grabbing a red bull and a V out of the fridge behind him and placing them on the counter while Kushina forked over the cash before downing the red bull in one go, now that Naruto thought about it that wasn't a bad idea. The blond made his own way to the counter, causing the Ramen Bar owner to smile at him.

"What would you like Naruto?" The older man asked a friendly smile still on his face. Naruto gave a small smile and a yawn in return.

"One bowl of Pork Ramen please Teuchi and I'll take two V oranges as well." The blond replied getting a chuckle out of Teuchi.

"I was wondering when you'd ask for a coffee or something." The older man admitted as he placed the two V's on the counter and took Naruto's card before resting it breifly on the credit machine a short ding later the card was handed back. "You've looked like you were dead on your feet when you got here." Teuchi added causing Naruto to give a small chuckle as Ayame continued to make Kushina's Salt Ramen.

"You're not to far off," The blond admitted before downing an entire can of V in one go and slapping himself on either side of the face. "Oh man that's what I needed." Naruto remarked as he put his hands above his head and stretched. His spine and shoulders making a cracking sound, Ayame just shook her head at him a smile on her face as she placed the Salt Ramen on the counter. Naruto took the hint and grabbed the bowl and his other V along with a pair of chopsticks.

Kushina had chosen a seat near the front of the restaurant, probably so that she could take out any thugs that came in straight away. Naruto placed the Salt Ramen down in front of the red head and got a nod of thanks. Before heading back and grabbing his own bowl and sitting down at the same table as Kushina, the red head gave him an odd look. Not exactly surprising, they hadn't really attempted to talk to each other over the last couple of day and they hadn't really tried to get to know each other either.

Naruto didn't say anything and just started to eat his Ramen, Kushina followed suit and said nothing. The two ate in silence, the only thing breaking it was the talking of Teuchi and Ayame in the background and the sound of their chopsticks. When Kushina finished she picked the bowl up and placed it back on the counter before walking back to the door. The red head paused for a second before turning to her blond haired room mate and giving him a quick nod that Naruto reciprocated before she vanished outside into the darkness.

Beside the 'late night lunch rush' of the night shift workers nothing else of note happened that night. Something that Teuchi, Ayame and Naruto were all very happy about.

**Chapter-End**


	4. Chapter 4

**Naruto of the White Thunderstorm**

**Arc One: Welcome to Konoha **

**Authors Note-**

And here is an almost completely fighting based chapter I hope you all enjoy. This chapter also marks the end of the Welcome to Konoha arc, ah it just flew by didn't it.

Also I think I need to talk a little about Chakra abilities. Chakra abilities can be broken up into two categories to start with, elemental and non-elemental with a number of sub-categories after each one. Then the abilities themselves have other categories such as instinctive and learned, lets use a fire Chakra user as an example.

Every Chakra user has an ability that they can use on instinct, as we are using fire as our example lets say a fire Chakra user can use an attack resembling the grand fireball technique on instinct and another can use something that fires a multitude of smaller fireballs on instinct. There is no reason that the one who can use the larger fireball can not learn how to use the small ones it just takes time an effort and vice versa. First they would have to know how much fire Chakra to use to make a small fireball then they would have to slowly but surely find out how to mold their fire Chakra so they could fire off multiple small fireballs one after the other.

That is the difference between instinctive techniques and learned techniques one they can do automatically while the other they have to work for. That being said the fire Chakra user is still only limited to fire type Chakra techniques they couldn't, for example, go out and learn how to harness lightning or something, they are stuck with fire only.

Also, yes Chakra users can walk on walls and water but it does require training to achieve and things have been done to the wall of Konoha to stop trained Chakra users from simply walking up it to get out.

In addition to that Chakra can be used to enhance weapon strikes and such as well as mould it into different shapes like the Samurai do in the Naruto manga, that being said that is only because they are using Chakra in it's rawest form. Shaping it after making Chakra leave the body is possible in this world it is simply impossible for them to learn how to use a Chakra ability that is different to their own.

Another way of putting it would be Shape Manipulation of Chakra possible, Nature Manipulation or use of Chakra ability outside of your own is not.

I hope I explained that clearly enough if not then please PM me and I'll try explain it to you again, just please make sure to tell me what part confused you.

There's a small authors note at the end of the chapter.

**Story Start-**

Naruto sat on the waiting bench of The Arena, his match started in ten minutes, breathe, in, out. Don't stress yourself, don't think, just act. The blond leaned back into the wall behind him, the waiting area wasn't exactly a large affair, just a thirty meter by thirty meter room with a bench attached to all of the walls. With a twenty four inch TV above the exit that let the fighters watch the people before them fight. This was the waiting room for the E rank fighters, nothing fancy only practical. He wasn't alone in the room however, not by a long shot.

The duck haired man from the bus was leaning up against one of the walls, his eyes closed and a neutral look on his face. The duck haired man was wearing a simple pair of black pants and a grey shirt, no shoes, and looked to be relaxed though Naruto thought he could detect a slight amount of anxiety underneath the man's rather stoic exterior.

In another corner of the room was a feral looking man with long nails and eyes with almost slit like pupils. His mouth was set in a frown and if the tapping of his foot was any indication then he was nervous, or impatient one of the two, like the duck haired man he was dressed simply. A cheep pair of grey pants and shirt along with a pair of sandals.

No one in E rank ever fought a match in something expensive. They did actually make proper clothing for Arena fights made of special material that was hard to rip and helped dampen impact against the body, but it was expensive and, at the moment, out of Naruto's price range. So he, like the duck haired man and the feral looking man, made do with cheep clothing.

A man wearing a pair of circular sunglasses stood near the exit of the waiting room, he was dressed reservedly like the rest. A simple pair of blue pants and a purple shirt, the most interesting thing about him was the fact that he had veil that covered his entire face from below the eyes down, though Naruto had no idea why the man wore it, what possible use could it have?

Kushina was resting near him, not close enough for him to reach out and touch her or anything like that but closer than anyone else. The red head had chosen to wear her Judo Gi, her blue belt succuring the out fit snugly around her hips. Naruto had to admit that the red head had some nice curves, and even though the Gi was rather unflattering it did show them off quite well. From what he had found out from Gai when he had asked the man Kushina was well on her way to reaching the Judo equivalent of a first degree black belt.

The ranking system by belt for Judo, at least in Gai's dojo, was White, Orange, Blue, Brown and finally Red. Kushina was slightly over half way to her first degree 'black' belt in Judo, Naruto had made a mental note when he heard that never to let the red head throw him, ever. In fact if he ever needed to fight her Naruto would be staying out of the way of her hands and just focusing on kicking at her legs, seemed safer that way.

The last person in the E rank waiting room, beside himself, was around one hundred and sixty centimetres tall and had brown hair a bandanna done up around it. Unlike the others he didn't really have a major distinguishing feature but he did carry himself with a kind of cocky assuredness that kind of made Naruto want to fight him. Mostly because people like that could rarely fight worth a damn and it would have been an easy win.

The blond leaned back into the whitewashed wall, his bare torso flinching slightly when it came into contact with the rather cold wall. Unlike the other competitors today Naruto had chosen to forgo a shirt of any kind. If he had worn one chances were it was probably going to get ruined anyway so why waste the money? Kushina he understood wearing the Gi top and, what looked like, a sports bra. She was a woman and the blond seriously doubted that the red head would have been happy wearing absolutely nothing up top and baring her chest to the world, not that Naruto would have complained, the show would be awesome!

For the men though, why wear a shirt?, especially one that you knew was probably going to be ruined in combat and you were only going to have to waste money replacing. Naruto himself was just wearing a pair of pants that he had picked up cheep from Gai, full length white Karate training pants, or Gi pants, whichever you prefer. The whiskered blond wore them simply because they were not only cheep but they were flexible enough to allow him to go for high roundhouse kicks if he needed to. Not something he really wanted to do though, high kicks ran a rather big risk of getting caught.

The screen above was showing the end of the previous match, a pair of E ranks knocking each other out in a double knock out. Naruto had to wince as he watched it, the two had laid a cross punch to the others chin at exactly the same time. That looked like it would have hurt, their heads snapped back as the two dropped to the arena sand. The blond stood and stretched, no need to risk pulling something before he had to fight, Naruto had been keeping warm by doing small amounts of push ups, sit ups and squats before the fight started so he wasn't going in cold. Something that was emulated by the other five in the room. It seemed that no one wanted to go home today and forfeit because they weren't warm when the fight started.

Naruto looked at the exit into The Arena proper where he would be heading in a minute to compete. The sound of footsteps was clear from the hallway, a group of seven guards coming into view. Two of their number dragging the competitors that were just fighting, probably taking them to the med bay. A guard wearing a cat mask stood in front of the six Chakra users, her purple hair extending down to her lower back. Naruto recognised her as the guard Capitan that had been in charge on his first day of coming to Konoha when he got off of the bus.

"Naruto and Kiba please step forward." She asked politely, the blond stepped forward and was joined by the feral looking man who was grinning slightly. "You two will be fighting in five minutes, should you need to go to the toilet or something else please go now, should you not be in this room to be escorted out to The Arena in five minutes you will be disqualified." Neither of them moved, the guard Capitan nodded before looking over at her men and giving them some hand signals, the four guards beside their Capitan took up positions to the sides and directly behind the two Chakra users.

"Very well," The purple haired guard Capitan said. "Then I'll go over the rules quickly. First no killing each other, should one of you kill the other you will be given no prize money." The woman stated, her voice carrying a no nonsense tone. "Neither of you signed up for a death match, so if one of you kills the other the lack of prize money will be your penalty. As for how to win that is simple, you have to make the opponent give up, knock them out or hurt them so badly that they can no longer fight, should the last one happen the guards will intervene to stop the fight." The guard Capitan stated, her voice serious.

"Other than the first rule of no killing anything else go's, do you both understand?" The purple haired woman questioned and got a nod from the two Chakra users, she turned to face the hallway again, "Then follow me." The cat masked Capitan began walking forward, Naruto and Kiba needed no more prompts to follow.

"Naruto," The voice came from behind him. It was one he hadn't heard for awhile, the blond turned back and saw his red haired room mate looking at him a smirk on her face. "Kick his ass." Kushina told him, Naruto smirked back and nodded.

"You got it." The blond replied before continuing down the hallway between the guards. He could already see it, the light at the end of the hallway. Naruto squinted, the harsh light of the sun hurting his eyes after being inside for so long. He could hear the deafening roar of the crowd as the two Chakra users walked out onto the sand. The seats were full, though the public only got to enter the prison once a month for to see The Arena live, a prisoner however could buy tickets every week except that one day of the month, so the fighters always had a crowd. Normally it was a large one.

The Arena floor was nothing but sand, reminding Naruto of the Colosseum of ancient Rome. There were no trees or boulders to hide behind, not that it surprised him. According to Gai all E rank and D rank fights were always done on a plain sand Arena floor. It was only C ranks and above that started getting things that made the fight involve more strategy like tree and boulders along with environmental traps.

Naruto cast his eyes over the crowd, it looked like a full house, geez no pressure huh. The guard Capitan stopped the group in the middle of the sand filled Arena floor and had the two Chakra users face each other at a distance of three meters. Her four subordinates began backing away.

"Are you both ready?" The guard Capitan asked, her voice somehow being magnified so the entire Arena could hear it. Naruto and Kiba nodded, Kiba hunching his back over a little. His hands coming out, the man's sharp nails pointing at the blond, Naruto grimaced, those things looked sharp he was probably better off avoiding them if he could. Naruto pulled himself into a basic Muay Thai guard stance, his fists up near his head, left leg in front. "FIGHT!" The guard Capitan roared jumping away from the two Chakra users, which turned out to be a very smart move.

Naruto closed with Kiba the moment the word fight was said, the blonds right leg whipping up in a vicious kick at his opponents ribs. Kiba's left arm came down, the feral man's elbow blocking the body blow before retuning with a punch at the blonds face. Naruto grimaced, his right arm batting the blow away, Kiba's long nails cutting him lightly. Naruto's elbow came up aiming to crack the man's skull, Kiba twisted out of the way and sent his open hand swiping towards Naruto's face. His nails aiming to claw out the blond fighters right eye.

Naruto leant back, allowing the clawed hand to pass him by harmlessly and retaliated by kicking Kiba in the chest. The blond couldn't help but smile in satisfaction as he heard the air leave Kiba's lungs violently. The two backed off, each never taking their eyes off of the other. Kiba smiled at his blond opponent and charged again. This hadn't turned into a battle of Chakra abilities just yet, each of them wanted to see if they could take the other down without using their skill so they could still have an ace in the hole the next time they fought in The Arena.

Kiba lashed out at Naruto's mid section with his leg, the blond couldn't help but smile, he had been waiting for this. Naruto stepped out to the side as his left arm whipped up and grabbed Kiba's leg, the blond pivoted on the ball of his left foot at the same moment and smashed the shin of his right leg into Kiba's left kneecap. It wasn't enough to break the knee but it was enough to take Kiba down, as the feral man fell Naruto slammed his left knee into Kiba's face and was rewarded with the sound of bone snapping as he broke his opponents nose.

However Kiba was not one to be hit without hitting back. As the knee impacted with his face with a sickening crunch the feral man pulled back his right arm and drove his nails into the side Naruto's left thigh, his fingers sinking into their second knuckle. Naruto grunted in pain and jumped back as blood began to soak the Karate pants left leg and looked down, oh that was going to need stitches.

Kiba pushed himself off of the sandy Arena floor, his own blood staining the ground around him a crimson red from his broken nose. The feral man smiled and pushed his Chakra through his body, time to take this to the next level. He jumped forward holding his hands out in front of him while spinning. This was his Chakra ability, it allowed him to mimic a beast after that he could use his Chakra to propel himself forward at high speed using his claws to rip apart anything in front of him. Kiba called the attack his Tsuga. Naruto's eyes widened as the attack got closer, shit. The blond jumped away, Kiba still grazed him though. The blond grunted in pain as Naruto felt his skin being ripped away from his right side, oh fuck was that going to hurt in the morning. Kiba landed, his back facing his opponent.

Naruto looked, the right side of his torso was a mass of ripped apart skin. Blood was flowing freely from the wound, still it was only a flesh wound no matter how you looked at it, Kiba's attack, while powerful, hadn't done enough damage to end the fight, still considering how much it could do just by grazing him Naruto knew that he didn't want to take it head on. The blond charged forward, if Kiba was starting to use Chakra then he needed to as well or else he was going to be overwhelmed. The feral looking man turned back to face the blond as his Chakra ability ended and received a punch to the face.

Blood pooled in Kiba's mouth from the blow and the right side of his face sizzled as the electricity coated fist burned it. The feral man could feel his muscles begin to lock up and flared his Chakra out, dissipating the electrical charge inside his body, Naruto swore internally. That was the weakness of his punches and kicks when they were encased in lightning.

If the opponent flared their Chakra enough they could dissipate the effect of the electricity before their muscles locked up. Still even then the lightning meant that his kicks and punches packed more power. Not may opponents wanted to fight you up close and personal when your punches could burn their skin badly, even if they could dissipate the charge inside of their body.

Naruto acted quickly before Kiba had a chance to back off again, the blond increased the rate that his lightning Chakra flowed to his hands and feet. It was a little trick that Naruto had learned when he was younger, how to increase the amount of electricity his fists gave off when he hit someone. So far he could go from around the same amount as a tazer, making his opponents muscles lock up, to actually damaging his opponents internal organs with each impact.

That being said even when using the higher voltage the weakness was still the same, if his opponent flared their Chakra when they were hit the internal damage wouldn't take effect. Still every cloud had a sliver lining and this one was that it cost his opponent a hell of a lot more Chakra to dissipate the effects of these blows then it did normally. So hopefully it would allow him to ware down Chakra users faster. Or at least that was the theory.

Naruto struck again, his fists moving fast. A jab hit Kiba's face sending him reeling back as his skin burned from contact with Naruto's fist. The blond didn't give the feral man any time to recover himself and mount an effective defence. A right cross punch impacted Kiba's face next, right on top of his broken nose. The white lightning coating his hand actually actually burning the wound closed, Kiba let out a slight scream as the fist impacted with his face.

Naruto's right leg whipped up, his foot encased in lightning and smashed into Kiba's left side causing the feral man to double over in pain. While the blonds hands gripped the back of Kiba's head and his right knee slammed him in the face. Naruto smiled vicously as he felt blood spurt out of the newly sealed wound as his knee forced it to open back up again, staining the right side of his Gi pants with blood even more so than they already were.

Kiba was stubborn though, his left arm whipped up and impaled Naruto's right side, stabbing through the previous light flesh wound and deep into his abdomen. The blond held in a scream and hit Kiba in the face again with his knee, his right arm swept out and forced the feral man's left hand out of his side. Kiba took advantage of the lessening pressure on the back of his head and stood up, his right arm lashing out at Naruto's face, the blond wasn't fast enough to dodge it even as he stepped to the side. Kiba's nails raked across Naruto's face, carving five bloody gashes over his nose and jaw. The blond spun, taking a step towards Kiba as his did so, Naruto's elbow came up. The feral man looked to his side, the blonds elbow connected cleanly with Kiba's jaw, the feral looking man felt his jaw break as he was knocked out.

Naruto took a step back from his downed opponent just in case Kiba could still get back up. The blond gulped down air like it was water, his right side was in agony as was his left thigh. Naruto's own blood was staining the formally white Karate pants blood red, he could taste copper as his blood leaked into his mouth from Kiba's last shot but Naruto couldn't help but smile as he stood over his clearly unconscious opponent.

"WINNER NARUTO!" The booming voice of the female guard Capitan announced as she and the other guards dropped back into The Arena. Surrounding the two Chakra users, one of the guards bent down and grabbed Kiba, placing the feral man on his back in a firemen's carry. The purple haired guard Capitan looked Naruto over and the blond felt like she had an exasperated smile on her face beneath that mask.

"Alright you need to get to the med bay, just follow Lizard over there." The purple haired woman said pointing at the man that had Kiba in a firemen's carry. Naruto nodded in return and followed the man towards the exit, the other guards brining up the rear.

Arriving back at the waiting room didn't take long, though the blood loss was starting to make Naruto dizzy. Kushina was looking at him with a slight amount of worry on her face but Naruto just shrugged at her and shook his head, he'd be fine. The red head seemed to accept the answer and nodded in return. Before following Lizard to the med bay Naruto turned back to Kushina who was about to go out onto The Arena floor to face a man called Yoroi.

"Kushina" The blond called out causing the red head to look back at him. "Crush him," The blond told her getting a vicious smile in return.

"Would you expect any less?" The red head asked in return before walking off with the guards. Honestly Naruto wouldn't expect any less of the red head, he had seen her fight before and how she trained. Unless Kushina underestimated him, or the man's Chakra ability was the red heads natural counter, then Naruto was sure that Kushina would be fine. The blond sighed before limping after Lizard, hopefully the medics would fix him up fast.

**XXX**

Kushina couldn't help but feel slight anxiety as she walked towards the exit of the hallway and out onto the sandy floor of The Arena. The red head could still see blood soaking into different parts of the floor, the guards positioned the two three meters away from each other before backing up. The purple haired guard Capitan coming forward her arm between the two Chakra users.

"Are you both ready?" The purple haired woman asked looking to Kushina and Yoroi in turn and receiving a nod from each. The woman pulled her hand up into the air, "FIGHT!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, the sound easily carrying to the stands as she jumped back out of the fight.

Yoroi rushed forward his right arm extended to grab, Kushina smiled, bad move. The hand came towards her arm, Kushina allowed him to grab before feeling sick, Kushina's legs gave out on her. It wasn't weakness it was just surprise from feeling so weak so suddenly. What the hell was going on!? Yoroi smiled down at the red head who was on her knees.

"You like it?" The man asked, what she thought was a smile behind his veil. "My Chakra ability allows me to drain the Chakra of whoever I grab, you should have never let me catch you." The red head couldn't help but smile at the man's choice of words, he had her wrist you couldn't call that catching a Jodoka. The momentary weakness left the red haired woman's body as her left hand moved, Kushina's fingers digging deeply into the meat of her opponents thumb as she removed his hand from hers. The red head felt power surge back into her body, it felt like she'd just drank a dozen red bull and some coffee.

Kushina pulled Yoroi in close as she pushed off the ground her right palm striking the man's jaw and getting a grunt of pain as his head snapped back. The red head followed up by grabing Yoroi's right arm with her left and stepped towards him placing her back to his. Her own right arm coming behind the man and gasping him near the hip. Kushina couldn't help but smile as she pushed backwards with her hips and knocked Yoroi off balance while swinging him through up and over her own hips and into a perfect hip throw, the red haired Judoka heard the grunt of pain as Yoroi's breath left his lungs.

Kushina backed off immediately, ground work would be ill advised here. She did not want to risk fainting from Chakra exhaustion because the bastard had managed to grab her and drain her for to long. Yoroi pushed himself off of the ground, his face a mask of rage.

"AHHHHH!" The man screamed incoherently as he charged Kushina again. The red head couldn't help but smile, at this rate she wouldn't even need to show her Chakra ability. The veil wearing man threw a hay-maker at her head and what came next was expected by anyone who had seen the woman fight before. Kushina ducked low, pushing Yoroi's arm up to give herself more room and stepped her right leg behind him. The red haired Judoka's right arm reaching up and grabbing the man around the throat. Kushina kicked her right leg back while pushing her right arm to the ground, Yoroi's head hit the floor, hard. Kushina smiled to herself as she backed off again.

Yoroi stood, spitting some blood out of his mouth. That last attack had been clean, he could feel the blood welling from the cut on the back of his head while it also pooled in his mouth from were he had bitten his tongue. Yoroi brought his hands up into a loose approximation of a boxers stance, though his feet were still planted firmly on the floor. The veil wearing man charged again, his fists lashing out with sloppy jabs and crosses with the occasional hay-maker thrown in for good measure. Kushina flowed around the attacks like they weren't even there, a hay-maker came at her head again this time the red head stepped in her forearms coming up and blocking the blow.

The red head pivoted on the balls of her feet as her elbow snapped up into Yoroi's chin snapping the man's head back. Kushina tightly gripped Yoroi's right arm with both of hers, her left hand on his wrist while her right was on his tricep. The red haired Judoka shifted her weight back and knocked Yoroi's centre of gravity off balance as she pulled him over her shoulder. A perfectly performed shoulder throw. However unlike the shoulder throw Kushina had performed on the thug at Ichiraku's this one was slightly different. This time Kushina had angled the throw to make Yoroi land on his head, and that was exactly what happened, with a sickening crunch the man came down on his head, face first. Kushina could tell that the man's nose was broken and couldn't help the smile that came to her face.

Yoroi stood again, his breathing completely messed up due to the broken nose. Kushina watched with a kind of morbid fascination as bubbles rose from the blood pooled around Yoroi's nose as he still tried to breath from it. The man took his imitation boxing stance again but was more cautious about approaching this time.

Kushina honestly didn't know why Yoroi didn't give up. Her fighting style was his natural enemy after all, even if he managed to grab her again, something that Kushina sincerely doubted would happen now that she knew his ability. The red haired Judoka knew he wouldn't be able to hold onto her for long before she got the grip off and then used the offending limb to throw him. Then again maybe the man was over estimating his skills, or maybe he was underestimating hers. Either way when he closed again it would end badly for him, Kushina knew that for sure.

Yoroi approached cautiously this time, his jabs and crosses were more probing and the hay-makers didn't happen at all. Apparently he knew what would happen to him if Kushina caught his arm again and was trying to make damn sure he wasn't thrown again. It didn't really matter to Kushina, she was grounded in Judo and preferred it to other Martial Arts but that didn't mean it was all she knew. Her family had all learned a few different types of Martial Arts, all of them were required to learn how to defend themselves. While Kushina preferred Judo that didn't mean she hadn't picked up striking from others.

Yoroi sent out another probing jab, Kushina brushed the attack off to the side and stepped in. Her left leg snapped out in a low kick to the man's thigh. She left it connect cleanly as Yoroi flinched, Kushina's right arm came back she breathed out hard tightening her muscles as her right arm raced forward as her left pulled back to her hip. Kushina's hand rotated over just before it hit her target of Yoroi's sternum. The air left the veil wearing man's lungs as he stumbled backwards, Kushina pulled her hand back and returned to her normal Judo stance. Karate had never been her forte.

Yoroi was looking at her like she was a monster, not exactly surprising when she had been kicking his ass around The Arena for the last fifteen minutes. Kushina honestly wondered if Yoroi was thinking about giving up, she supposed it would be a match between what would win out the man's anger at her for beating him or the man's self preservation instinct, Yoroi took up his imitation boxing stance again, anger it was.

Yoroi approached fast this time, Kushina guessed that the veil wearing man was hoping to overwhelm here with speed. Unfortunately for him Kuhsina had spent a long time learning Judo and even learning some Karate, she had been hit at far faster than Yoroi was capable of by people that hit far harder than Yoroi. As the man's cross came out Kushina blocked Yoroi's right arm out wide before slamming her fist into the nerve cluster in his bicep. The veil wearing man jumped backwards in surprise and pain. Kushina allowed him to back off, not following, she would let him come to her and come he did.

Yoroi raced in, his fists flying as fast as he could manage. Kushina flowed around the techniques and placed a hard punch to Yoroi's stomach doubling the man over. Her left leg snapped out slamming into Yoroi's exposed inner thigh, the man managed to choke out a small cry of pain, something that Kushina found quite surprising considering that her punch should have taken out almost all of the air in his lungs.

The red head moved behind the veiled man, her right arm came out wrapping around Yoroi's throat and pulling him back up into a standing position. Kushina twisted placing her hips side on to Yoroi's back, The red head pulled back on Yoroi's neck while slamming her hips into the slightly struggling man taking out his centre of gravity and throwing the man across her back by his neck.

The man flew over Kushina, his neck being used to pull him over her body. A neck throw, something that Kushina never really had a need to use before. Kushina's smile widened as she saw the man fly over her and land on his head, she back away from the downed Yoroi and waited he didn't get back up. The red head just shrugged before looking up to the stands, the crowd was cheering.

"WINNER KUSHINA!" The voice of the purple haired guard Captains voice came over The Arena. The guards surrounded the red head and the cat masked leader looked her over quickly. "You're not hurt," The Capitan stated. "Well at least you don't look hurt," She clarified before looking over at Yoroi. "He on the other hand..." The woman let the statement hang before turning back to Kushina. "You need to get checked off by the med bay before I can legally let you leave, just follow Lizard over there and he'll take you. Your friend should be up by now as well." The purple haired Capitan stated as Kushina looked over at the masked guard that was picking up Yoroi in a firemen's carry.

"Okay," The red head stated as she followed the mask wearing guard to the med bay.

**XXX**

Naruto groaned as the medic held her hands over the wound on his side, green Chakra coming off of her hands. Thanks to the miracle that was medical Chakra Naruto had found out all of his wounds could be healed before he left the building. That being said the medic had told him that he would need to be careful of his side for the next few days, he should be fine but to go to the hospital for a check up if he felt anything wrong. Naruto looked at the medic as she pulled away from his wound, the brown haired woman smiled down at him.

"There all better," She stated pulling away, Naruto nodded.

"Thanks for that," The blond replied, "How much did that set me back?" He inquired, the brown haired woman walked over to a clip board and looked at it.

"Did you win the E rank match?" She inquired upon seeing Naruto nod the brown haired woman looked back to the sheet. "It'll come out of your winnings, you get paid four hundred and ten KP per win in E an rank fight and the injuries cost two hundred KP to fix up so you're getting paid two hundred and ten KP for your win." The nurse informed him before turning to the door, "Your clothes, the ones you came in with not the ones that you fought in, are in that draw." She told him before walking out of the room, Naruto stood up slowly, he wasn't hurt but he was a little stiff.

The blond pulled on his black pants and grey top, he didn't wonder where his Gi pants were, the nurse had asked him if he wanted to keep them, when he said no she had thrown them out. They had been completely red by the time Naruto had finally made it to the med bay, it would honestly be cheaper to buy a new pair than fix the old one up.

Naruto walked out of the room and down the hallway, thankfully the entire Arena had helpful signs up telling him where he was and where to go if he wanted to leave. Naruto didn't have to worry about picking up the money, it would be placed directly into his account, now he was going to go and buy some plates and other things for the apartment followed by some new clothes. Then if there was some KP left over maybe a microwave or something.

The blond was joined on his way out by a red head that was still wearing her Judo Gi. Kushina looked up and smiled at the blond. Naruto scowled back, he had been able to see her match on a TV in the med bay.

"I didn't get hurt at all," Kushina stated, Naruto growled at the red head, Kushina just stuck her tongue out at him.

"Rub it in why don't you." Naruto grumbled, as the two walked out of The Arena. As they left the building Naruto realised that was the longest conversation the two had ever shared.

**XXX**

The blond Martial Artist yawned as he looked at the clock, it was twelve am Kushina would be here soon. It had been two days since The Arena matches. The red head and the blond had been slightly more friendly with each other but they still didn't talk much. The door to the Ramen joint opened and a familiar red head walked in, Naruto gave the red head a nod of acknowledgement before looking back to the door again.

It had been one week since they had taken care of those Thugs so if Mizuki thought they were just a one off occurrence then Naruto thought that his boys would be coming around today to collect their weekly protection fee. That being said they would probably come in larger numbers than last time as well, Kushina sat down with two bowls of Ramen and held one up towards the blond, Naruto just smiled and took his place at her table near the door.

"So how's your job been?" The blond asked, taking a bite of the pork Ramen that Kushina had placed in front of him. Kushina shrugged, before taking a bite of her own Salt Ramen.

"About the same as always," The red head replied, Naruto nodded. That was a fair answer, Kushina worked in a twenty four hour corner store that was in District J so she didn't have very far to come to eat at Ichiraku's. The door behind the two opened again and seven morons dressed in skull jumpsuits walked in, Naruto and Kushina didn't bother waiting for Teuchi's go ahead. The blond grabbed his empty Ramen bowl and tossed it at one of the Thugs heads, it shattered on impact. Knocking the man forward and into a wall, Naruto finished him off by elbowing him in the back of the head.

Kushina got up close and personal with one, her arm lashed out and wrapped around his throat before she kicked out his legs and slammed his face into the floor. Naruto's fists crackled with what looked like white lightning as he punched another in the face before twisting and planting a hard kick in the chest of another.

Kushina spun, her vibrant red hair fanning out behind her as she snatched up a chair before breaking it by hitting one of the men across the face, knocking him out cold. Naruto closed with the man he had just kicked, following up with two hard jabs to the body and a cross to the face, the man went down, hard. The blond spun his arms coming up and blocking the hay-maker from one of the jumpsuit wearing buffoons, Naruto's left hand gripped his opponents wrist and dragged him forward, elbowing the man in the jaw before pushing him down and finishing him off by kneeing the man in the face.

The last man standing of there enemies seemed to be in shock, Naruto shrugged and looked over at the red head who smiled as she seemed to glide forward over the floor of the Ramen Bar. He scared man threw a wild hay-maker at the red head who ducked under it while wrapping her right hand around his throat and stepping her leg through. Kushina pivoted, smashing the man into the floor head first and putting him out like a light. Naruto sighed and looked up at the ceiling, this was it, if everything was about to go to hell it would start right here.

**Chapter Four- End **

Hope you guy's liked those fights the reason Naruto got so busted up and Kushina won without a scratch was simple. One Naruto had the harder opponent and two Kushina's combat style, Judo mainly, is a direct counter to Yoroi's Chakra ability because he actually needs to grab someone to make it work. Which plays straight into Kushina's hands, as far as who is stronger go's that's a bit of a hard question. Kushina is without a doubt the better hand to hand fighter while Naruto has far more experience using his Chakra ability so in the end they come off about even.


	5. Chapter 5

**Naruto of the White Thunderstorm**

**Arc Two: Fight Club**

**Authors Note-**

Okay first things first, I guess this is the chapter where the fight against Mizuki really starts to get going. I've finished going through all of the mechanics of the prison so now most of the chapters will be focused on advancing the storyline, with some breather chapters here and there for good measure or to tell you something about the characters that you didn't know before.

Also despite me, in story, being far more forthcoming about Naruto's past I'll just let you know now that Kushina's ain't a hell of a lot brighter. Naruto learning about what happened to the red head will be a major sub plot for quite some time. Also there will be no major characters introduced and taking main stage for quite awhile, major supporting characters yes, main characters no. Though I have already hinted at some people that will be upgraded to main character status eventually.

While I do fully intend to make the main character cast more than Naruto and Kushina, but its going to take time. Mostly so I can really get the two grounded into this AU world and enhance their relationship with each other as well as flesh them out individually. Don't expect romance for awhile though.

Also there are is a character bio for both Naruto at the end of this chapter just listing little random things like favourite colours, what I personally think his theme song is at the moment (that one is subject to change based on character development), as well as some personality notes that I'm basing the character around. Just little things that you may enjoy reading if you like the story and because I'm bored, mostly because I'm bored.

**Story Start-**

Naruto grumbled as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and looked over at the alarm clock on the floor, it was six am. Dammit he'd only had two hours sleep before waking up, the blond sat up allowing the sheets to fall off revealing the Muay Thai practitioners muscular torso to the world. Naruto pushed himself out of bed, god dammit his throat was dry as a bone, he needed some water. The blond haired man casually walked to his rooms door and pulled it open revealing the combined kitchen, living and dining area, the smell of mold was still quite prevalent. Though thanks to airing the place out and some air freshener the smell had quite noticeably decreased.

Naruto yawned, water then bed. In that order.

His eyes drifted over the area, if nothing else the apartment looked a lot more like an actual home now. Between the two hundred and ten KP that Naruto had pulled from The Arena and the four hundred and ten that Kushina had managed they had furnished some of the apartment. A small three seater couch had been squeezed in, that was Kuhsina's, while a coffee table with a small TV on it sat opposite, they were Naruto's. Other than those two large purchases the two had also gotten their hands on a set of plates, bowls, glasses along with knives and forks.

Naruto's eyes were slightly unfocused as he walked towards the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water from the tap, a cool breeze coming in from the window behind him. That was strange, Naruto could have sworn that he had closed the window before he went to bed. The blond felt the atmosphere in the apartment shift and sighed.

"You know attacking me in my own apartment is a really shitty idea right?" Naruto half asked as he cautioned the intruders. The blond looked into the various spots of darkness in the living room.

"Leave now and I promise that I won't come after you," That was a blatant lie in a sense. It was true that Naruto wouldn't go after them right that second if they left, that being said he would definitely hunt them down later. Where they would have a long and painful talk about who sent them, as if he didn't already know, and where he could find that person. From the spots of darkness around the combined kitchen, living and dining room three figures made their way into the comparatively lighter parts of the apartment.

Well they would definitely be easy to remember, Naruto would give the three that. Unfortunately being memorable isn't exactly what one could call a good thing when you kill people for a living, especially if those people happen to live through your attempt. All three of the morons that had infuriated his apartment were wearing the same tan jumpsuit that slightly resembled a straitjacket as well as a re-breather, which Naruto would admit was kind of smart considering they knew nothing about Kushina's Chakra ability and for all they knew she could produce poison. After that however they differed, slightly.

One had a blind fold on, Naruto had no idea why. Another a metal plate wrapped around his throat, the final wore a metal plate on his forehead, all of the three had a bandanna on concealing their hair colours from Naruto, who would again would admit that this was quite smart of them. The three figures all brandished knives at the blond, Naruto sighed. The man with his eyes covered spoke.

"Lets just kill him Obroro," He demand still looking, for lack of a better term, at Naruto. "We need to get out soon or else the guards might catch us." The blind folded man added sounding a little unnerved at the chance of being caught.

"Fine Akio, now just stay there like a good little boy and I promise that this will be painless." The now identified Obroro told Naruto who sighed.

"You do know that attacking me in my own home probably counts as assisted suicide right?" The blond asked before snatching a knife off of the kitchen counted and leaping at the blindfold wearing man who slashed at him with the knife held in his own hand. Naruto's left hand flicked out and knocked the blade off it's intended course to the blonds throat sending it high while Naruto ducked low, planting his fist into the Akio's stomach and doubling him over before twisting around behind the man and stabbing down with the knife in his hand. The blond smiled as the blade sunk into Akio's shoulder all the way to the hilt.

The other two wannabe assassins charged Naruto's grip tightened on the knife in the man's shoulder and he twisted, hard. Forcing Akio's body between him and the other wannabes, the two couldn't slow down, Naruto smiled and kicked Akio in the back sending him and the other two crashing to the floor, the blond backed off. Jumping back into the kitchen and picking up another knife, a cook knife this time. The blade was far heavier than the last one he had picked up, now that Naruto thought about it, what was the last knife he had picked up? It had been awfully light.

"Akio you okay!?" The leader yelled, seemingly very concerned for his team mate. The blind fold wearing ripped the knife out of his shoulder and stood back up before looking at the blade. Then hurling it at Naruto, the blond didn't even bother to move and just let the badly thrown knife go past him.

"Crazy motherfucker stabbed me with a god damn butter knife!" Akio roared back jumping to his feet and charging Naruto again as he passed the door to Kushina's room said door came flying open and nailed the blind fold wearing man in the face, stumbling him. Naruto threw a quick look at the red head and immediately wished he had longer to look. Kushina, as it turned out, didn't wear much to bed. Just a pair of red panties and a slightly to big for her T-shirt, and were those her nipples, yes, yes they were. Naruto immediately turned his attention back to the three assclowns that had broken in, Akio was still on the floor nursing what looked like a broken nose.

The other two closed, Naruto's left hand went out knocking the knife that his opponent was holding up while brining his own over the man's left arm, severing the tendons. Blood spurted from the wound, splashing Naruto's face and blinding his right eye, the blond cursed and stepped back. It was a good thing to, his other attacker had chosen just the moment to strike. The back step caused Naruto to get a nasty cut under his eye but it was better than losing it completely. The blond stepped in and launched a hard kick to the unnamed assassins knee, dropping the man to the floor.

Kushina kicked the down Akio in the side before hauling him back up and smashing the man's face into the concrete wall that separated her room from the rest of the house. The first impact splattered the man's already broken nose across the side of his face, blood spurting out like a fountain. Kushina didn't care in the slightest, the red head smashed the blind fold wearing assassins face into the wall again, eliciting another crunching sound.

Then she did it again and again and again, not once slowing down or stopping. Kushina spun, her hand going around Akio's neck, the red haired Judoka wrenched the arm back over her hips, violently, and with a sickening snapping sound that signified the breaking of his neck the blindfolded man sailed over her back before slamming down on the man that Naruto had just dropped to the floor with a kick.

"AKIO!" Obroro screamed seeing his team mates ruined face and snapped neck. "Kali, we're getting the fuck out here!" The man roared clutching his left arm with his right where Naruto had severed his tendons. Obroro, displaying speed that Naruto didn't know the man possessed quickly bent down and grabbed Akio's limp body before jumping out the window that the three had entered from, the assassin named Kali hot on his heels. The blond Muay Thai user and the red haired Judoka both raced to the window.

"COME BACK HERE YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!" Naruto screamed after the retreating trio, though he made no move to actually chase them.

"YEAH!" Kushina added, her hair still messy from sleep. "COME BACK AND LET ME SHOW YOU WHAT I DO TO PEOPLE THAT WAKE ME UP AFTER ONLY TWO HOURS OF SLEEP! TWO FUCKING HOURS!" The red head roared at the retreating backs of the assassins who made no move to turn around and fight the now clearly pissed off duo. Naruto closed the window and sighed before walking back to the kitchen and downing the glass of water that he had poured before the fight.

"You okay?" Kushina asked, Naruto re-evaluated the red head at that moment. The fact that she didn't seemed even the slightest bit put out after being attacked by assassins told Naruto more about Kushina than the blond was sure he wanted to know.

"Fine," He responded after a moment, the lightning Chakra user crossed the room and shut the window, making sure to lock it. Not that Naruto thought that would actually help if someone really wanted to get in, as had just been proven. "I don't know about you but I for one am going to go back to bed and catch some shut eye." Kushina just nodded before turning back to her own room, now there was an idea that she could get behind.

Still both did have to wonder exactly what the other had been through to be able to easily shrug off an attempt on their lives and then go back to bed. It told both Kushina and Naruto slightly more than they wanted to know about the other at that point in their association.

**XXX**

Naruto's leg rose, slamming into the boxing bag in front of him with as much force as he could summon while turning his hips over for the extra power it provided. There was a clear thud of impact as his kick forced the bag to swing away from him, considering the bag was around five times his weight Naruto was quite happy that he was making the thing swing as far as it was with each kick.

In addition to using the bag as training for his kicks Naruto was also using it to toughen up his shins. Unlike some Martial Arts a Muay Thai practitioner used the shin rather that the foot to hit with for a roundhouse kick. So Naruto's shins needed to be hard, very, very, hard and what better way to toughen them up than hitting a solid punching bag.

Naruto turned over again, his shin making a clear smacking sound as it impacted with the bag. While Gai had told both Kushina and he to take time off this Sunday and go to the underground Fight Club that he ran the week after this one Naruto had declined, instead opting to go in the Sunday coming up.

While Naruto had little trouble taking down the three assclowns that had broken into the apartment that morning it didn't mean that the entire encounter hadn't told him something. That something being that Mizuki knew where he lived, or at the very least could hire people who knew where he lived, Naruto didn't have time to rest any more, and considering the way he could see Kushina throwing herself into her Judo class at that very second Naruto suspected that the red head felt the same way.

"Time!" Genma stated, Naruto stopped kicking and took in deep gulps of air. Just another ten minutes and he was done, then onto the weight training. The brown haired man smiled to himself as he brought out a pair of Thai pads and strapped them to his forearms.

"Okay then rookie give me twenty knees off of each leg followed by twenty jab, crosses and twenty hooks." The bandanna wearing man demanded placing the pads in front of his stomach as Naruto grabbed him around the back of the neck. The blonds knee came up, his hips coming forward as his knee slammed into the pads for the first time. Naruto couldn't help but smile as he heard Genma release air from his lungs violently. He pulled back, lifting his left knee and slamming it into the pads making Genma step back slightly, a proud smile on the Muay Thai instructors face.

Naruto didn't have much time to appreciate the smile though, no the blond was concentrating on making each and every strike as fast, as hard and as technically perfect as he could. Considering the way Genma was grunting as each knee hit the pads Naruto felt like he was succeeding.

The blond let the brown hair man go, his hands coming back to rest near his face before they shot off towards the pads, each direct hit making a smacking sound on impact. The blond ducked low as Genma threw a hook at his head, Thai pad still on, before coming back and launching straight into hooks. Sweat was dripping down from Naruto's body in waves, as Genma called for yet another attack.

His hands snapped out, catching Genma in the clinch as Naruto's knee did its absolute best to smash through the Thai pads and allow Genma's ribs to be united with his spine for the first time. The second the knee was finished Naruto pulled back slightly, just giving himself enough room to lunch a downward elbow to the pad that the brown haired instructor was holding up before resecuring the clinch and kneeing again. The two continued their training, Naruto's sweat dripping off of him as his training shirt stuck itself to the blonds body. There was a sharp ringing sound as the timer went off Naruto just let Genma go and stepped back.

"Good work kid, now hit the weight room then you can go home and clean up and maybe take a nap." Genma told the blond haired fighter who just nodded in return as his trainer turned around and headed towards the locker room. Naruto groaned as he forced his, by this point, very abused legs to comply as he made his way up the stairs and into the weight room.

Naruto stumbled over to a treadmill and turned the machine on, for the next six months or so Naruto knew that he would be working mostly on his lower body strength. Once that was up to par then he could work on just being able to maintain it before looking to increase his strength again.

The blond Muay Thai user groaned as his feet ran on the treadmill, oh dear god this hurt. But Naruto knew, he needed to push himself. He wouldn't survive at the level that he was at the moment, if he stayed as he was then Naruto knew, not suspected but knew, that he was going to die and the blond had no intention of that happening for a very long time. His breathing came in gasps as he noticed Kushina ascend the stairs and jump straight on the leg press, neither spoke to the other, they were simply to tired. All the energy they had was going into one thing, their training, because it may very well be the only thing that would keep the two alive.

**XXX**

Naruto breathed in slowly, then exhaled. The sun was already going down behind the horizon bathing the sky a bloody red. Personally the blond found the colour to be appropriate, they were going to spill blood tonight why should it not be a blood red sunset, the world just loved irony it seemed. Naruto stood, the blond was dressed rather simply, especially for someone who had a recent windfall of cash and could use some new clothes. Just a simple pair of blue pants, his normal sneakers and a long sleeved black T-shirt.

Naruto reached down, grabbing the bag by the end of his bed. The bag only contained two things, a towel to wipe sweat and blood off along with a pair of white Karate Gi pants that he had picked up form Gai earlier that day. The blond looked down at the clock next to his bed, six pm, time to leave the bar opened at six, Naruto really didn't want to turn up right when the place opened. It would take Kushina and he thirty minutes to get to the bar if they didn't rush and that should give the people who had just gotten out of work to start drinking and hopefully the crowed would cover the two up. But that was probably a vein hope really, their hair was to distinctive. Honestly Naruto liked his hair colour but it was a bitch to be incognito with it.

The blond pulled the door to his room open and stepped out into the living area of the apartment, Kushina was already waiting for him. The red head was wearing her Chinese slippers, light purple pants and a black top, the woman looked grim. That was unsurprising, if there was one thing that Naruto had learned about Kushina it was this, she knew when to be serious and considering they were about to enter a no holds barred underground fight club her seriousness was well called for.

The red head was the first out the door, her own bag holding her Gi around Kushina's waist. Naruto locked the door behind them as he left, they didn't speak as they walked towards District J. Before a fight everyone had something that they did if they knew it was coming, what exactly people did naturally differed from person to person but for Naruto and Kushina they stayed quiet and just focused on the fact they would be beating people into the floor in the near future.

The streets passed the two by quickly, neither really paying attention until they came to the small bar that Gai had directed them to. It wasn't exactly a large place, just a small back all bar that not many people seemed to visit. But Naruto could smell it, that sweet smell like honey, that rough smell of copper, the place practically reeked of blood. The pair of fighters entered the bar and quickly took in their surroundings, the place was dingy and not well lit in the slightest. The smell of smoke clogged the air now they had opened the door had been opened, completely destroying the smell of blood.

There were only ten people inside the bar, two at the bar itself with the others scattered around the tables. Naruto didn't waste any time and walked straight up to the bartender, Kushina following behind, her face blank. The bartender was a large man, a shaved head with enough scars on the top of it to give Naruto the impression that the man knew his pain threshold, he knew it really well. The large man looked the two over for a second.

"What will you two be having?" The man asked, his voice surprisingly smooth. Naruto just thought back to the phrase Gai had told him before smiling at the bar tender.

"A friend of mine told me you had a really good bottle in the basement I was wondering if my friend and I could have some of that." The blond stated clearly, the bartender smiled viscously and walked out from behind the bar before gesturing for the two to follow. The scarred man led the two fighters down to the basement of the bar, Naruto expected to see a small fighting ring with a basic betting table and a few dozen people, what he got was something completely different. The basement looked exactly like the basement of a bar should, filled with kegs and bottles of spirits and wine. The scarred man's smile grew wider as he saw the look of confusion on Kushina's face, one that was mirrored on Naruto's.

"Thought we were small time did ya kiddies." The man said, a slight amount of amusement colouring his tone. "Sorry but we take this business a little more seriously than most, this is the real thing. Not some back ally club were people can punch each other for fun and some money, what we sell here is some real bloodsport." The scarred man grabbed one of the kegs on the wall and pulled, the wall itself came away with a row of kegs revealing a door sized hole in the wall.

"You want to fight or just to party it doesn't really matter." The man told the two as both Naruto and Kushina approached the hole. "Down there you'll find the best bloodsport that doesn't involve Chakra in Konoha and you'll find the best club in the prison, enjoy kiddies." The scarred man finished as the pair of fighters descended the stairs, the man chuckled and shut the hidden door behind them, no turning back now.

The dark hallway was illuminated by small lights for the twenty meters of its length before the two came to a solid steel door which Naruto rapped on with his knuckles five times, leaving two seconds between each knock. A slot opened up and the two saw a pair of brown eyes before it closed again and the door swung open. The man behind the door was rather plain looking, brown eyes and black hair wearing the kind of uniform one would expect the bartender at a club to wear.

"New?" The man inquired getting a nod from the two and a smile from the man. "You here for the club or to fight?" Came the follow up question. Naruto felt slightly confused, they were different?

"To fight," Naruto and Kushina answered at the same time. The man nodded rubbed his nose with his fingers for a second.

"Alright then, to fight go to the small desk near the cage and put your name down, bets are taken by the bookies near the bars. He'll give you a ticket with the amount that you bet on it along with the pay off if you're right. Naturally if you are right then go back and collect your winnings, since you two are fighting the rules are simple, just don't kill the other guy and no weapons, that's it." The man informed the two his voice serious.

"Chakra can't be used in the club due to seals set up all around it so don't even try," The man added, before thinking for a second. "When you fight your paid for every win but you can't bet on your own fights, house rules. Other than that some of the guards also come down here to relax and fight themselves so if you see them outside of here do not say a damn thing. The guards that don't come here get paid off but lets not go advertising this place shall we." The man waved the two through into the club. "Have a nice night."

"You too," The pair answered while walking through a veil into the club. It was beyond lively, three levels, Kushina and Naruto were on level three. The top level had a bar, a dance floor and even a DJ pumping out tunes. The second level was one giant arena side fight seat looking down on the people inside the cage on floor three from above. Naruto could see another bar on the second floor as well, a bookie inside his own booth was already taking bets on the fight down below. The third floor held the fighters cage, a match raging that very second, another bar could be seen along with a bookie and even an ring side announcer.

Pulsing lights raged through the club keeping everything in a swirl of constant motion and colour, wow, Gai really went all out on this place. Naruto walked straight to the nearest bathroom, Kushina following along behind, a vicious grin already beginning to show on her face. It was easy to find the bathroom and changing took almost no time at all, the blond and red head walked back out onto floor three of the club and got looks from some patrons that were the visual equivalent of 'fresh meat'.

When the two got to floor one a new fight was just starting in the cage, the first fighter was a man with brown hair and blue eyes, his hands wrapped in boxing tape a pair of MMA shorts over his legs while the other fighter was also male with black hair and green eyes wearing a traditional Karate Gi. The two were just eyeing each other off while the announcer left the cage and locked it behind him, the announcer himself was a short man with blond hair and in a business suit.

"SANADA! VS BAEK DOO SAN! FIGHT!" The announcer roared signalling the start of another bout. The brown haired man raced forward in a traditional boxing stance only to be met with a kick to the face. Blood exploded outwards as Sanada's nose was broken by the impact of Baek's foot against his face. The black haired man stepped in, his left leg whipping up and slamming into the side of Sanada's head sending the brown haired man to the floor with what Naruto suspected was a concussion.

The boxer stood back up looking unsteady on his feet before advancing again. Though this time Sanada's advance was slower and more controlled. Baek leapt forward and threw a punishing kick at the boxers legs only to be met with a fist to the sternum making the man double up in pain. Sanada didn't waste any time getting in close and holding Baek to his body with a boxing clinch before laying into the man with body shots.

Baek recovered quickly and the black haired man gouged his opponents eyes, Sanada let out a strangled cry and stepped back. The black haired man took advantage of the opportunity and raced forward, his left leg coming up and kicking Sanada cleanly in the balls before kneeing the other fighter in the head and breaking his jaw. Some blood spray hit the crowed again as Sanada's jaw bone pierced the skin and his blood fountained out.

"WINNER! BAEK DOO SAN!" The announcer yelled as the brown haired man was hauled out of the cage on a stretcher. Naruto looked over and smiled at his red haired companion who smiled back as he handed her a wad of cash and walked towards the cage. Kushina already knew what to do, place the money on Naruto to win. The blond jumped the railing of the cage and landed lightly staring down the other fighter.

"OH NEW MEAT!" The announcer screamed over the sound system before coming over to the cage. "WHATS YOUR NAME MEAT!?" The man asked, the currently cheering cage fighter fans screaming for another fight to start, well if they wanted blood Naruto would give it to them.

"NARUTO!" The blond yelled back at the announcer, never taking his eyes off of the man in front of him. The announcer nodded before looking back over the crowd and throwing his arms wide.

"ALRIGHT WHO WANTS A CHANCE TO WIN SOME MORE MONEY!" He asked reviving thunderous applause in return, "WELL THEN LETS GET THIS FIGHT STARTED!" The announcer continued before turning back to the blood splattered cage. "BAEK DOO SAN! VS THE NEW GUY NARUTO! FIGHT!" Neither fighter wasted any time once the words were spoken, Naruto raced forward to close Baek's right leg snapped up to break his nose, the blonds arms came up and blocked the blow.

The blond grunted in pain as he pushed Baek's leg off to the side bringing the two in close, from what Naruto could tell from that last match Baek seemed to rely almost completely on kicks not really using his hands, so, in theory at least, an up close and personal clinching fight should be the man's natural enemy. The blonds left arm darted out in a hard hook, catching Baek solidly on the side of his and and splitting his lip open.

Naruto didn't waste any time, speed and violence were the keys here. The blonds right fist came up, smashing into the point of the black haired man's chin and snapping his head back from the force of the blow. Naruto smiled as his hands wrapped around the back of Baek's head and pulled him down, Naruto's knee smashed into the man's face with bone crushing force, a sickening snapping sound was heard as the blonds knee broke Baek's nose and splattered it across his face, but the brutality didn't stop there. Naruto pulled his knee back again and slammed it into Baek's face, blood fountaining out of the man's broken nose. The white Karate pants legs were being stained red, the blonds knee came back again before once more meeting the other man's face with bone crushing force.

The crowd loved it, yells of 'fucking kill him' and 'break his neck', were being screamed down from above. Naruto drove his knee into the man's face again before pulling Baek up and looking his victim in the face. His nose was shattered, blood bubbling out of it as the black haired man tried to breath, his mouth was a ruin. Most of Baek's teeth had been knocked out by Naruto's knees, blood was flowing out from the ruin that used to be the fighters mouth like a river. But Naruto wasn't done yet, the blonds right arm came back, a vicious elbow landing on the side of Baek's face and sending a spray of blood out into the crowd, something that Kushina was not happy about.

"Fucking hell Naruto!" The red head yelled to be heard over the sound of the music and the announcer declaring him the winner. "I don't want to catch something from these nasty bastards, watch the fucking blood spray!" Naruto shrugged towards the red head and walked over to the exit of the cage, leaving Baek Doo San lying in a slowly growing pool of his own blood, Naruto looked down and sighed. He was going to need to buy some more Gi pants again.

Kushina jumped into the ring as he blond partner left it, her Judo Gi drawing some appreciative whistles from the crowd for the places where it hugged her body just right. The red haired woman placed her arms above her head and stretched, for tonight Kushina had chosen to wrap her hands with bandages to prevent her wrists from being to hurt if she punched at a bad angle. The red head bounced lightly on the balls of her feet, waiting for the person that she was going to put in the ground.

Naruto smiled to himself as he picked up his winnings from the announcer, each fight paid three hundred KP to the winner. He whistled to himself as he approached the line for the bookie and looked up at the screen above the booth where he resided, apparently Kushina's odds of winning the next fight were three to one, well it was time to make some money. The blond did wonder where he had seen the woman in front of him before though, that purple hair did look awfully familiar even if he couldn't quite place where.

Kushina smiled as her opponent walked into the ring. He was a mid sized man with brown hair and grey eyes, wearing the outfit of a boxer. Hand wraps and a pair of shorts, from the way the man's legs looked Kushina doubted that he actually used any kicks or at least if he did then he didn't use them very often. Because there was a large difference between the amount of muscle mass on his upper and lower body.

"NEXT FIGHT, KUSHINA VS ARIOKI! FIGHT!" The man roared causing the two fighters to close with each other, Arioki's fists lashing out in lightning fast punching combinations. It seemed that Kuhina had been right, the man was a boxer. The red head slipped out of the way of a punch and grabbed Arioki around the waist, her right leg slipping behind the man's left and taking them both to the floor, it was here that Kushina proved that she was just a vicious as her room mate. The red head quickly grabbed on of the boxers arms and wrenched it to the side, the sound of bone snapping was heard as the red haired Judoka snapped Arioki's right arm with a twist.

Kushina moved fast, launching her body up and into a knee ride position on Arioki's right side, her fist came down and slammed the brown haired man's head back into the floor of the cage. The red head couldn't help but smile as the sound of cracking bone was heard, at that moment Kushina knew she had broken her opponents nose. The red head rolled back, grabbing Arioki's left and twisted her body. Pulling the leg straight before levering hard with her hips, the sound of bone cracking sounded once again as Kushina broke her opponents knee. The red head stood up and backed off, the crowed above was roaring it's approval at the fight.

"WINNER KUSHINA!" The announcer yelled as the red head jumped the railing of the cage, grabbing her money before wading back into the sea of people outside the cage. She made her way to the bookie where Naruto was just picking his winning, the blond was very, very, happy to have turned his three hundred into nine hundred. He gestured to the bar, Kushina nodded and followed ignoring the sound of the announcer as another fight started in the cage.

"You up for another?" Naruto asked, and got a blood thirsty smirk in return.

"Of course," Kushina assured him before turning back to the bar and ordering herself a drink. An action that Naruto immediately mimicked, that was a good idea. "Right after I have a drink for a job well done." The red head added as a Canadian Club and Cola was deposited in front of her and the bartender set another before her blond haired room mate. Naruto held the bottle out for a toast, Kushina clinked the bottom of her Canadian Club with his.

"Welcome to Fight Club." Naruto stated before taking a deep pull on the alcoholic beverage, Kushina doing the same a smile on her face.

"Welcome to Fight Club." The red head agreed before the two downed the rest in one go and made their way back to the cage, the night was still young after all.

Chapter Five- End

Character Bio:

Name: Naruto

Age: Twenty One (assumed)

Favourite Colour: Orange

Theme Song: Rise Against- From Heads Unworthy

Personality Profile: Easy going and normally carefree the blond has spent most of his life living in the underworld of society. However despite his normally carefree attitude the blond should not be underestimated. After living on the fringes of society for so long Naruto has shown that he is both capable, and more than willing, to be both heartless and extremely cruel in pursuit of his goals.


	6. Chapter 6

**Naruto of the White Thunderstorm**

**Arc Two- Fight Club**

**Authors Note-**

Just a short chapter and a short note this time.

Not much talking but I honestly think that this was one of my better emotional chapters. Also I haven't checked through this for mistakes and things yet so it's going up RAW for now since I won't have time to do that until Sunday when I will go through it, please enjoy for now though

**Story Start-**

Cold, it was fucking cold! These were the first thoughts of Naruto as he walked outside of Ichiraku's Ramen Bar at three thirty in the morning having just finished his shift. The blond wrapped his arms around his waist as his breath misted in front of him, 'note to self, buy warmer clothes.' Tomorrow was Sunday again, time to fight in the cage pit. Still last week had been Kushina and his first week and they had made a killing, Naruto honestly couldn't wait to do it again. What could he say, even locked up in this place he was still a mercenary at heart.

The money the two had won had come in quite handy, the apartment now had a fridge, a microwave and the they had even managed to grab a wardrobe each. None of it was anything fancy though, no it was all pretty normal stuff, functionality over looks and all that. The blond haired Muay Thai user looked up at the sky, the stars illuminated the heavens as the moon was hidden behind a single cloud. There was the sound of shoes scuffing the road behind him and the blond slowed down, a familiar red head coming up along side him. Naruto gave Kushina a quick nod before basking in the silence again while looking up at the sky.

They were more comfortable around each other now, friends may be stretching it a little as neither really knew anything about the other. Well beyond that they could fight and that the two of them were stuck fighting a prison gang together. Still conflict is a breeding ground for both allies and enemies, so far the pair of Konoha inmates felt like they had picked up a valuable ally in the other. The fact that they had people trying to kill them notwithstanding, Naruto had a soft spot for people that could hold their own in a fight so based on that fact alone the red head was okay in his books.

The Thai fighters eyes came down from the heavens and quickly looked over the red head next to him before going back to the sky. Yes, Naruto could honestly say that he was very happy with his new ally/acquaintance. Neither chose to speak, neither needed to. They had nothing to say to each other, small talk like, how was your day? or having any problems?, had already been gone over when Kushina had come into Ichiraku's for her normal nightly bowl of Ramen. The sound of feet hitting the stone paths around them came to Naruto's ears who stiffened slightly, an action that was mirrored by Kushina as her own ears picked up the sound.

"At least ten in front," The blond stated grimly, his red haired companion nodded in return.

"Five from left and right," Kushina added getting a grimace from Naruto in return.

"That leaves another five from behind." The blond finished before immediately flaring his Chakra, Naruto's fists roared with white lightning, his arms swept down lightning covered hands ripping his sneakers free from his feet in one fluid motion. Naruto's arms came up as the first of the thugs came into view, dammit he knew Mizuki's boys had been to quiet recently. Kushina's Chakra flared next to him covering the woman in an ethereal blue glow, no elemental effect could be seen so Naruto guess that his red haired room mate had a different kind of Chakra ability.

The other thugs seemed to melt out of the darkness, they were all dressed the same as the first jokers that Kushina and he had taken out. Full body jumpsuits that had the bones of the human body on them complete with full face mask of a skull. Most of them weren't carrying any kind of weapon but a few of them had things like metal baseball bats and the occasional cricket bat. The ones carrying the baseball bats were no threat at all to Naruto, all he had to do was so much as touch their weapon and the shock should put them down. Still it seemed that Kushina and his own estimate had been correct, twenty in total.

The two fighters gritted their teeth, this wasn't a battle they could win. Best case scenario right now was they held out long enough and caused enough of a ruckus for the guards to come investigate soon. Worst case they died, well he died at least, somehow Naruto doubted that Kushina would have that luxury as fast as he would if they lost. He saw the looks that some of them were giving the red head, yeah if they lost Naruto had the feeling that Kushina would find death preferable to what would happen to her.

Naruto's fists came up, breaking back wasn't an option even with only five people there. If they did then there was a very, very, good chance that the group would Shepard them to the park area, and with all the Chakra flaring that would be going on from Kushina and he it would take the guards a hell of a lot longer to find them. The side streets may seem like a good option, they weren't very wide and would allow their enemies to come at them only one or two at a time, but against this many people they were not a good idea. The last thing either of them needed was to dash down a side street and dive head first into an ambush. In addition to that they had no idea what Chakra abilities any of the twenty had, for all they knew running down a side street was playing right into their hands, all that left was breaking forward or standing and fighting. Breaking forward had the same problem as breaking back so all that left was standing and fighting, oh dear sweet god was this going to hurt in the morning.

Still luck wasn't completely against them, the more Chakra that was flared the faster that the guards would come to investigate. That meant that their attackers would need to be careful about how much Chakra they used while Naruto and Kushina could go crazy with it, still if they backed the gang of twenty into a corner then all bets would be off and Chakra would start flying from everyone. Naruto's fists came up by his face as Kushina fell into her Judo stance, the lead thug stepped forward holding a baseball bat in his hand, sound came from his throat, Naruto assumed it was either going to be gloating or a demand for them to surrender, either way he never heard it.

The second that either of them heard any sound at all from the leaders mouth Kushina dashed forward, her hair a bloody red blur behind her. The red heads arm rushed forward and slammed into, the assumed, man's throat with a wet crack, Naruto honestly assumed that she might have crushed the man's trachea. If she had hit on the right angle that was a slow death, the man would literally suffocate because he couldn't draw in any air, nasty way to go. After that however Naruto had no more time for reflection as the nineteen remaining gang members charged.

The blond ducked allowing a baseball bat to go harmlessly over his head and catching a kick to the face in its place. Naruto's head snapped back, thankfully he had taken that on the forehead as opposed to the chin of the nose. He twisted pushing one of his attackers arms out wide and grunted as he took a hard hit to the body in return, Naruto's left hand wrapped around the man's throat, lightning surged around his grip. The man excluded Chakra to counter, a valid move, if all Naruto was looking to do was subdue him. The man screamed as the lightning burned off his skin, blood pouring from the blackening skin around his throat as Naruto's white lightning literally burned it to ash. The blond twisted, his human shield being thrown in front of a cricket bat swing that would have taken his head off. The bat impacted with his shields skull, a wet smack being heard. The blond grunted in pain as one of the thugs behind him kicked him in the kidney. His grip tightened and Naruto ripped his hand away from his former human shields throat while tightening his grip. Blood splattered over the front of his clothes and he watched with some satisfaction as the thug members backed off as their comrades body fell to the floor, blood quickly pooling around it. Naruto's left hand opened, bits of bloodied bone and skin falling to the road, Naruto charged the regrouping gang members, who were hesitant to face the man who had just, literally, ripped out their friends throat. Two down, eighteen to go.

Kushina dashed into the group of thugs in front of her, ducking low when a cricket bat was swung at her head. Instead catching a hard kick to her stomach, the red head gasped and took a step back. One of the jumpsuit wearing thugs decided to grab her, big mistake. His hand was ripped off her arm in a split second, a sharp twist breaking his wrist. Kushina didn't stop there though. The red head flowed like water behind one of her attackers, pushing him into the swinging arc of one of the baseball bats and was rewarded with a wet thud as it hit home on the side of the man's head. Kushina stepped forward her hands reaching out gripping the side of one of her enemies head and twisting, hard, the man's neck broke with a wet snapping noise, Kushina smiled slightly as she felt his spine break, he would not be getting back up again.

The red head jumped back, but wasn't fast enough. The cricket bat caught her in the side, Kushina held in a scream as she felt two of her ribs snap from the blow. Her Chakra flared again as the red haired Judoka thrust her hands forward, chains made of pure Charka erupting from her palms and wrapping around two of the thugs throats, she twisted and pulled and was rewarded by the wet sound of crunching bone and pouring blood as the two men's throats were turned into a mess of broken bones and ripped flesh.

Naruto stepped in, his hands coming up and blocking the wildly swung blow from his first assailant while the second managed to catch him in the side, the blond grunted as he felt some of his ribs crack under the impact. He lashed out with a vicious punch and broke the first assailants nose while spinning as the man stumbled back and grabbed another thugs leg. Naruto's left hand side erupted in pain as a baseball bat hit him in the ribs, breaking the previously cracked bones. Ignoring the pain in his side, Naruto spun dragging the thug he had caught forward and into the path of the swinging baseball bat. The bond twisted his captives head up leaving his throat exposed and lifted him slightly off the ground, catching another extremely painful punch to the kidneys from behind for his troubles. The baseball bat impacted with his captives throat at high speed, smashing the man's trachea and dooming him to death by suffocation. Naruto spun throwing the soon to be corpse at the men behind him before completing his spin to face the baseball bat holder and charging forward.

The man swung his bat and Naruto ducked low, allowing the bat to go harmlessly over his head. The blond landed a hard punch to the man's family pride, doubling him over and causing him to drop his weapon. The blond stood, his knee coming up and breaking the thugs nose. Naruto's right arm blurred forward, two fingers extended. They pierced the man's eye ball, the electrical currents melting the eye on contact, the thug let out an inhumane cry of pain as the eye was destroyed that was silenced immediately after by Naruto's white lightning frying his brain. The corpse dropped to the ground, blood pouring from his eyes, ears and nose. The blond jumped back, narrowly avoiding the fireball sent his way by one of the thugs. Shit, they needed to leave, now!

The chains disappeared from Kushina's palms as she ducked an attack from behind, her leg went out sweeping her assailants legs out before she jumped back to avoid a punch. The red head stepped back in her left hand racing forward in a stabbing motion fingers forward, impaling the thugs throat and killing him, not instantly but Kushina knew how to crush a trachea and she knew she had gotten that right. The red head screamed in pain, she had left her arm out for to long and hadn't had enough time to pull it back. The baseball bat had hit her on the elbow of her fully extended arm, breaking it instantly. The red head twisted, using her training to ignore the pain and counter attack, her right arm came up chain racing around her opponents throat she pulled, his throat exploded into strips of flesh and the occasional splintered bone.

Kushina jumped back, her eyes widened as the red head realised that she had just jumped into the path of a swing from one of the cricket bats. Her already broken left arm came up, she fought the urge to scream in pain as the limb was forced to move, blocking the blow, for the most part. It still rattled her and put Kushina off balance, it was part of the reason she couldn't dodge the follow up attack. One of the men raised a foot before slamming it down, the ground rumbled before a spike of rock shot up towards her, Kushina twisted, it wasn't enough.

Blood splattered around the red head as the spike of rock ripped through her skin and exposed the front of her ribs to the world. Blood rushed out of her body as Kushina went into shock. The red head fell to her knees, blood rapidly pooling around her as the life drained from her eyes. Her vison got blurry as the thugs approached, one hefting a baseball bat to finish the job.

Naruto's eyes widened as he saw Kushina go down in a spray of blood. The blond twisted grabbing one of the thugs in front of him and hurled the man at the leading thug nearing his partner holding a baseball bat. The blonds enemy turned projectile flew truly and knocked the baseball bat holding thug back. Naruto's victory however was short lived, one of the cricket bat wielders behind him finally swung true. The bat connected with the blond lightning user with a sickening crack, knocking him to the ground and splitting open Naruto's scalp. The blond man didn't care in the slightest pushing himself back up and racing towards the red head as one of the leading thugs raised his foot off of the ground.

Naruto's breathing was coming in short gasps as he dove forward and grabbed the red haired woman pulling her out of the way as another rock spike shot up and hit the blonds ribs, ripping away his skin and nicking the side of his ribs on its way through. Naruto looked down at the red head, oh shit this wasn't good she was losing a lot of blood at this rate Kushina was going to die. Naruto looked back up, the thugs were advancing on them, he could almost see their grins under those damn skull pictures. The blond laid his red haired companion down on the ground and took off his jacket before placing it over Kushina's wound.

Naruto's right arm came back, it wasn't just Kushina that was going to die here. It seemed that his time was finally up as well, oh well he'd had a good run at least. This technique was nowhere near finished and would have taken out one enemy for sure but the backlash would have taken him out as well. Now that all hoped seemed gone Naruto didn't care any more, Kushina was going to die, he was going to die. Since that was the case, HE WAS GOING TO TAKE ONE MORE OF THESE MOTHERFUCKERS WITH THEM!

Lightning surged around the blonds right fist, condensing into three different points around the up raised arm. The punch came forward with blinding speed as Naruto used what was left of his strength to jump forward fist coming forward the man who used the rock spikes hands came up to ward off the blow, they wouldn't help. The lightning covered fist met the upraised hands and the world exploded into white, the colour blanketed the vision of all watching, the sound of raw electricity roared and when it was over and the thugs could see again what was there made their blood run cold. Naruto still stood, right fist out, but their fellow gang member was gone. From the waist up there was nothing, even what was left, just his lower body, was covered in burns, even where the man's upper body had joined with his lower the wound was burned shut.

Naruto's arm however wasn't in good shape either. From his shoulder to his wrist the blonds bones were sticking out of his skin, blood pouring from the limb like a waterfall and already a sizable puddle was forming under the blond. Naruto's right leg moved, the thugs flinched, the blond turned around and slowly placed one foot in front of the other, none of the thugs around him stepped anywhere near the blond soon to be corpse. They were afraid, no one had any idea why. The blond was clearly about to die and join the red head in hell so why were they afraid? Naruto's left foot came forward and he took another step towards the slowly paling Kushina.

The thugs still didn't move, ice, it felt as if ice had been pushed into their veins. For some reason the blond man that was about to die scared them more than anything else in the world at that moment. Naruto took another step forward, arriving at the soon to be corpse of his sort-of-friend, Naruto's knees gave out and he fell to the ground, pain jarring his entire body. His wounds didn't look it but they were far worse than they appeared, the back lash from that punch had electrified his internal organs, burning them while they were inside of his own body, Naruto was living on borrowed time.

Naruto's right hand went out and touched the cold face of his red haired sort-of-friend. The blood from his mangled arm spilling onto Kushina's face and tainting her crimson hair and even brighter red. Darkness ate at the corners of Naruto's vision as he began to black out, Kushina's blood had long since soaked through his jacket and was pooling around her. Naruto's body gave out and he slumped to the side, his right hand falling from Kushina's face. Naruto's forehead rested against Kushina's like some sick parody of two lovers. His body didn't have the strength left to move, Naruto forced his mouth to open anyway, he wanted to say this before his end.

"Kushina if we had met earlier do you think we could have been friends?" The blond man asked, the darkness had almost completely taken his sight. "I'd like to think so," He continued placing his right hand back on her face, a single tear escaped from under the red heads eye lids. "Are you crying Kushina?" Naruto asked rhetorically, a tear escaping from his own eyes as darkness finally claimed his sight. "If at all possible I would like to go to the same place as you." Naruto finished, as he surrendered to the darkness.

The full moon came out from behind the clouds bathing the area in white light, shining down on the two soon to be corpses. White light glinted off of the blood around the two, Naruto almost felt like he could feel it even as he surrendered to the darkness.

Red like blood.

White like bone.

Red like solitude.  
White like silence.  
Red like the beastly instinct.  
White like a god's heart.  
Red like thawing hatred.  
White like a frozen, pained cry.  
Red like the night's hungry shadows.  
So shooting through the moon in a sigh is like  
radiant white, scattered red.

**Naruto of the White Thunderstorm Chapter Six- End **


	7. Chapter 7

**Naruto of the White Thunderstorm**

**Arc Two: Fight Club**

**Authors Note- Kind of important this time.**

Okay I got some mixed reviews for that last chapter, I expected that.

To be honest I knew there wasn't much of a cliff hanger at the ending and I didn't really feel that there needed to be. Since there was no complete tag added to the story I made the assumption that most of you knew that they would both still be alive. That chapter was about three things.

First, That the threat of death is very real.

Second, Reinforcements don't always show up to help. Naruto and Kushina are on there own for the most part.

Third, While they are strong they are not invincible, they can be hurt and twenty on two odds are ones that they can't walk away from at this point in time. That will eventually change but as of right now it is beyond them.

If the last chapter was about those three things then this chapter is about just two things.

First, A little of Naruto's past. I have mentioned that he had worked as a thief for awhile and while he is a good thief he is not a world class one so expect to see him make mistakes and being a little cocky and arrogant. In the flash back he's only in his mid teens and still thinks of himself as somewhat invincible, his thievery will take place during a flash back. Also it feels like I rushed the ending of his thievery exploits, if anyone else notices that would you mind putting it in a review along with how you feel it could be improved.

Two, Even people that want to help you may do it in ways you wish they didn't. Alternatively, don't trust everyone, no one in Konoha got to be successful with out being cunning and ruthless.

Also there's a poll up for you to vote on whether or not the Biju should be included as characters in this story at one point or another. It should be noted that if they are they will most likely not be gigantic chakra constructs but rather just people with incredible power.

Finally there's a little bit of a plot twist that I hope you guys enjoy, if you saw it coming then feel free to put it in a review.

Okay now that's over lets get on with this thing shall we.

**Story Start-**

Empty, that was what Naruto felt like, he felt empty. Was this what death was like?, this empty black void stretching for eternity around him, fuck if that was really the case than this was going to be one boring afterlife. If he really was dead, and the blond had to admit that it was quite likely, then anyone who said you saw a light at the end of a tunnel was fucking wrong.

Then it came to him, a light in the blackness of the void getting slowly and slowly closer. A memory, not recent, but not from the distant past either. The light got closer, he looked younger, fifteen, maybe sixteen, grey sneakers, blue pants and a black long sleeved T-shirt. Ah Naruto remembered this day, his first time making some real money by stealing things. Not petty change like car jacking or home invasion got you but real money.

That job had sure had been one of his less exiting ones, minus the fire, everything was better with fire, still it wasn't the worst thing he had ever done, not even close. Killing people was infinitely worse than just stealing something, and Naruto had killed more than his fare share of people, both men and women. Though the blond had never stooped to the level of killing a child, deliberately anyway, Naruto knew that he was a reprehensible excuse for a human being but even he had his limits. Those limits were no killing children if it could be avoided and never rape a man, woman or child, that was about it. There was not much beside that that Naruto wouldn't do for the right price.

The light got closer and Naruto sank into the memory.

**XXX**

It was bright, mid may weather, kind of hot. The streets were filled with people, some coming, some going, some, well he had no fucking idea what they were doing. Cars, trucks, buses, every kind of vehicle imaginable clogged the streets, but that was normal for the morning rush. Naruto's blue eyes flicked down and looked at his watch, just past seven am, well they had only just opened and most people didn't go in for a meeting for another hour but he should probably start walking now and arrive early, you know make a good impression and all that. Make it look like he was eager and ready to work.

The sound of his feet was lost within the seemingly inhuman sounds of people yelling, music and car horns. The city was absolutely packed, not that Naruto found that to be particularly surprising, Roanapur was always like this. A large shithole of a city where damn near anything went and if you had enough money or knew the right people you could quite literally kill people in cold blood and get away with it, so long as there weren't to many witnesses. Actually that was probably a lie, if you had enough money in this city you could probably rape and kill someone in the middle of a street and no one would bat an eyelash. While the city wasn't exactly a wonderful tourist destination for this reason alone, and didn't exactly reflect to well on the reputation of the government of Mizu no Kuni, Roanapur had another moniker, albeit unofficial, The Demon City.

Roanapur was a hive of illegal activity, child prostitution, arms dealers, drug runners, you name it some one in Roanapur was probably selling it, that included human flesh for consumption, don't ask how he knew that, please, just don't. The only reason that the city was still standing was simple, it brought in a heap of revenue thanks to it being a harbour city and that the leaders of all the various gangs that ran the place had bribed enough officials in the Daimyo's court to look the other way when it came to the city that they conducted business out of. Apparently the ones that took the bribes found it very lucrative, and the ones that didn't? Well they all seemed to have very short terms in government, or just disappeared outright, or occasionally committed suicide, the bottom line was that Roanapur was here to stay and there was nothing that anyone was willing to do about it.

Naruto had been to the city a fair few times over the last few years though he never grew interested enough to stay. While Chakra users were more accepted here than in other places it was not a good place to live, and after some of his experiences with the city Naruto just felt like taking his chances elsewhere. In perfect honestly Naruto believed that if he stayed in the city he would be dead inside a year and that was him being generous with his estimate. Still no one paid like they did in Roanapur, crime was a very, very, lucrative market here, again the pay was not worth staying here for though. That being said when Naruto was in the city he always left it with more in his pockets than he started with. The blonds feet stopped and Naruto noticed that he had arrived at his destination, a large building, fifty floors, home of the Sun Yee On Triads boss, a Mister Chang.

Chang was a nice enough guy, so long as you weren't working against him then the man was a demon in human skin. Naruto had worked for the illusive Triad boss a number of times before and was honestly one of the few crime bosses that the blond respected. Chang always met with first time workers himself to judge them, the man was no fool however and every weapon on someone's person was stripped from them before they entered a room with the boss. The first time Naruto had met the man he had noticed that seals had been added to the room as well to prevent Chakra users from lashing out at the man.

The blond haired thief/bodyguard/all-round-bad-guy pushed open the door to the lobby, said lobby being just as impressive as the first time he had seen it. A large statute of a dragon roaring at the sky dominated the centre of the room, an information desk directly in front of him with an elevator on either side, the ceiling was one gigantic mosaic depicting men and women fighting side by side against a black shadow, Naruto had no idea what it represented, it was amazing to look at though. The blond haired teen stepped into the building and walked up to the receptionist, a brown haired woman in a black business suit and happy green eyes. A warm smile made its way to the blond teens face, you always got more information out of people if you acted like a warm and nice person, always.

"Hi, names Naruto, I'm here to inquire about a job." The blond stated, smile never leaving his face. "I was told to go up and see someone about special interests on level twenty seven." He finished getting a nod from the brown haired woman. If the woman knew that seeing someone on level twenty seven about special interests was code for coming in as a freelancer to take on jobs to the Triad she didn't show it. That being said this was Roanapur, the woman probably wouldn't have been fazed in the slightest if he had walked up to her and asked her price for a quick bit of fun in the toilet.

"Okay just let me check that for you," She said, her fingers flying over the keyboard of her computer while her eyes scanned the monitor. "Alright for special interest there are a few jobs available, you can go up and see Mr. Izumi about them now if you'd like. Or if not please feel free to drop by any time in the next few days." Naruto nodded at the information.

"If it's all the same to you I'm going to go see them now, do I need a badge or anything before I walk around the building?" Naruto inquired, the blond knew that he didn't last time but policy was always changing and the last thing he needed was to have a Triad think that he was trying to disrespect them or start something. There was a reason that he never worked against Chang's organisation after all.

"No you should be fine, I've entered your name into the system so you'll be fine. I also sent an e-mail to Mr Izumi so he's already expecting you, have a nice day Naruto." The woman told him with a smile making the blond teenager nod back gratefully, his eyes flickered over her clothed breasts, a part of Naruto's mind that was not focused on business noted that she looked like a C cup to him nice and perky too, before finding the name tag he was looking for.

"Thank you Miss Tagaki, have a nice day won't you." Naruto replied walking towards the elevator.

"You as well," Tagaki called back, the elevators doors swung closed and Naruto hit the button for the twenty seventh floor, a ding accompanying his selection. The elevator ride was nice and fast, fortunately no one had stopped him on the way up, it was always nice when that happened. When the doors to the elevator opened Naruto stepped out into the hallway, the twenty seventh floor looked exactly like he remembered it.

A long corridor filled with doors that each led to a single office, the people inside were dealing with everything from legitimate business to extortion and everything in-between. Like Naruto had noted earlier, in Roanapur crime paid, crime paid very, very, well and as such the people who ran the city, people like Mister Chang ran their Triads like one would a business and it worked. Honestly if someone was ever looking for how to successfully run a business/criminal empire Naruto was firmly convinced that they should go to Roanapur first and learn from the experts.

As for where Izumi was, well if his office was still in the same place then he would be twenty three meters down the hall and to the left. Naruto set off at a brisk pace, it seemed that they had new carpet put in, it was blue this time, the direct opposite of the red it had been last time. Then again a year and a half was a long time, that was doubly true when it came to Roanapur. As things turned out Izumi hadn't moved and the man's office was still twenty three meters down the hall and to the left. Naruto gave the door a quick knock and entered when he heard a gruff voice tell him to come in.

Otashi Izumi was an old man, there really was no better way to put it. His hair was steel grey, leathery skin, calloused hands that showed signs of using just as many knives as he had pens and finally a black business suit. The old man's cornflower blue eyes bore into Naruto's own ice blue orbs before he nodded at one of the chairs.

"Been awhile kid, after you left last time I was half expecting to never see you again." Izumi stated, Naruto never called the old man by his first name, the blond had no idea why but it just didn't feel right.

"An understandable thought," Naruto replied flippantly. In all honesty he had nearly died more than once since he had left Roanapur, the blond was kind of surprised that he had survived as long as he had and stayed out of a Chakra user prison. "Still, what have you got for me old man?" He inquired, Izumi just snorted as his eyes went to the computer in front of him and the old man's leathery fingers tapped a few keys.

"A few different things, though based on what you were able to pull off last time you were here I think I've got something right up your ally." Izumi admitted as his mouse clicked a few different times and the printer behind him started up. "Your thieving skills improve any since you left, cause you're gonna need to be quiet and able to stay hidden to get this one done kid." The old man informed the younger criminal seated in front of him as he turned and grabbed the print outs from behind him and spread them out on his desk.

"The jobs simple, inside this house," Izumi stated., pointing to the print out of a three story condo. "Is something that we want, an old piece of jewellery, a crown in fact that used to belong to the former Daimyo of Oni no Kuni, well that is if you believe what the owner tells everyone." The old man added before pushing a printout to the centre of the table. It was the picture of a man, black hair, slightly tanned complexion, green eyes.

"That is Isamu Kazuhiro, the owner of the crown I mentioned earlier. I'll be honest kid, we have no idea if the crown really is the one from the Daimyo but it could be and that alone is enough for us to hire someone to steal it. So do you think you can take this, you're only going to get one shot at it and while I don't doubt that you can get yourself out of the police lock-up if you're caught it may damage your reputation some, so you in?" Izumi asked, Naruto smirked. Oh, he just loved a challenge.

**XXX**

Naruto grunted as he hung from the railing of a balcony. The blonds outfit was all mottled grey, right down to his socks, underwear and even the bandanna that was concealing his hair. Most people thought black was the best colour for sneaking around in, they were a bunch of morons. Black silhouettes you against the sky and makes you stand out in a dark room, since most of the time the room is actually just very dark grey when the lights are off and not pitch black. Mottled grey stopped that silhouetting from occurring, in addition to that the fact it was mottled meant that Naruto's clothing would actually break up his form when he was viewed from a distance, meaning that even if the blond was forced to flee there was a chance that he wouldn't be identified. There was only one thing that had annoyed Naruto when he had gone to check the condo out.

It just so happened to be built into the side of a goddamn cliff! Which he had just spent the last two and a half hours scaling, he really needed to get into better shape. Naruto gripped onto the bottom of the balcony with his fingers, Izumi had told him that the quieter he was the easier it would be to get to the crown. If this had been a normal home invasion Naruto would have completely disregarded that advice kicked down the front door and stolen the damn thing. Unfortunately for Naruto, Isamu Kazuhiro had hired a private security force of twelve men to guard his home. While Naruto knew he was good, he wasn't quite beat down twelve guys with knives by himself good, even with his Chakra ability. So deciding that discretion was the better part of valour Naruto had opted to go in silent this time.

The blond slowed his breathing down and peeked over the top of the railing slightly, the blinds were closed, no one on the balcony at all. That was a good thing, however the blond could hear people approaching and considering that Isamu didn't have a wife, a mistress or a kid to the best knowledge of the Triad, that could only mean a member of the man's security team. Naruto had been told that it was okay to kill them, just to make sure that doing so wouldn't keep him from getting to the crown. The voices got louder and the blond haired teen lowered himself back down lowly as the two figures came into view. Naruto tightened his climbing rope and straps, he had done this before but better safe than sorry. Death by blunt force trauma due to hitting the rocks below him was not appealing, even if it would most likely be painless. Like most horny teenagers Naruto wanted to go during a sex marathon with a dozen hot women, it would never happen but he could dream right?

Now to play the waiting game, easily the most stressful, and boring, game ever created, the voices got louder. Naruto ignored the words that the men were saying and focused on the sounds of their footsteps and the clink of metal that could be heard. Knives and batons, probably some basic training when it came to hand to hand combat, grunts. Well hopefully they were grunts, if these were ex-military then Naruto might as well just leave now and save himself the loss of reputation and a beating. One of the men placed his back against the balcony railing and Naruto shuffled over behind the man before pulling himself up slightly, the other one was looking away, that was good now all he had to do was pray that the other guy didn't turn around, time to get started!

The blond pushed off of the cliff face below him slightly, pushing him just high enough to grab onto the closest guard, one of Naruto's hands closed around the man's mouth muffling any initial yell while his second hand grabbed the man around the throat, the blond pulled back, hard. Simple physics did the rest, with Naruto's weight drawing him backwards the man was pulled back over the balcony and sent into free fall, careening down towards a quick death on the rocky ground below. Or at least Naruto hoped it would be a quick death for him, even for an enemy he didn't think that bleeding out would be a good death, or a quick one for that matter.

Naruto came to a jarring halt as his climbing rope went taunt and stopped his decent, harness taking most of the weight. The blond knew he had to act quickly, the man started screaming halfway down, Naruto pushed himself up against the rocks and climbed fast. What he had been expecting happened, the second guard put his head and the rest of his upper body over the railing to check on his fellow guard, Naruto exploded upwards and grabbed the surprised man by the head and pushing off of the railing, pulling man to the same fate that had just claimed his partner. Again Naruto's harness saved his life, the blond pulled his body up over the railing and landed lightly on the empty balcony, pulling his climbing gear up after him and quickly stowing it in the bag on his back.

Naruto looked over the balcony and down onto the two corpses cooling on the rocks below. "ENJOY THE CLIMB BACK UP BITCH!" Naruto called down before composing himself and sighing.

"Time to go to work." The blond teen said, pulling up a mental map of the condo and stalking towards the still unopened doors. Picking the lock and getting inside was the easy part. The crown was on level three, two levels to go. Naruto crouched low to the ground as he stalked through the home, his ears straining to pick up the slightest noise. The first floor was deserted, Naruto smiled to himself as he crept onto the second floor and began making his way through.

A floorboard creaked near the blond and Naruto heard footsteps approaching him from behind, fuck! The blond haired teen stayed low to the ground as he dashed forward, feet barely making a sound of the Jarrah floors of the condo. A light was on up ahead, Naruto slowed down, even with the foot steps still approaching from behind. There was the sound of meat frying and some one cutting, a kitchen and someone was inside as well, shit. The footsteps got louder, no choice, Naruto stayed low to the ground as he entered the room, a man in a chef's uniform had his back turned towards the blond and Naruto made a quick dash to the pantry that was on his left and slipped inside keeping the door ajar just enough so that he could see out as the owner of the footsteps turned up, another guard, wonderful.

"Yo Gon? You seen Batsu or Kenji anywhere?" The guard asked sounding a little put out by the fact he couldn't find the people that, Naruto assumed, were his friends. The chef turned away from his cutting to face the guard.

"Sorry Aki, haven't seen them since they went outside to patrol the boundary. Maybe their radios are on the fritz, you told me a few days ago that you'd been having trouble with this lot." Gon offered, Naruto was chanting 'please believe it' over and over again in his head with an almost religious fervour. The guard nodded after a second, before sighing.

"You're probably right Gon, I'll try to find them again later. Sorry for distracting you," Aki replied and walked out of the kitchen the same way he went in. Naruto slipped back out of the pantry and pulled his combat knife out of the sheath on his calf, the blond popped up and nailed the chef in the temple with the hilt, knocking the man unconscious. Naruto pulled his now passed out victim to the pantry and placed him inside before creeping back to the frying pan that was still on and turning the gas off, no self respecting chef would leave something like that on if they were gone from the kitchen, he had to at least maintain the illusion that everything was normal.

The blond crept out into one of the hallways attached to the kitchen and made for the next room, his eyes quickly going over the walls and noticing the fire alarm. When Naruto saw the living room he swore, quietly of course, the room was crawling with guards. The blonds eyes went back to the fire alarm before he looked back down the hall and saw a broom cupboard, he smiled, now there was an idea.

Naruto raced back down to the kitchen and grabbed the two fire extinguishers before continuing on his merry way back out to the balcony and emptying the consistence of the two over the edge before making his way back to the kitchen and turning on the stove. Naruto smiled to himself as he opened the pantry, gabbing all the lighter fluid and alcohol he could find.

From there it was a simple matter of making what was about to happen look like an accident. Naruto pulled the chef out of the pantry and placed him on the ground broken bottles seemingly swept off of the table by his arm as the man fell, Naruto quickly replaced the now empty fire extinguishers before pulling out a tea towel and calmly lighting it on fire, Naruto whistled to himself as he threw the alight piece of cloth into the mixture of alcohol, kerosene and lighter fluid.

Predictably the kitchen was set ablaze quickly, Naruto walked out of the room and hit the fire alarm before hiding himself inside the cupboard. As predicted the sprinklers came on but didn't really do much against the fire, the guards rushed in and grabbed the out of foam fire extinguishers only to quickly discard them, one of them ran into the blaze and pulled the still alive, and slowly waking up, chef out of the blaze.

"Get everyone outside and call the fire department!" The guard that Naruto recognised as Aki roared to the others still holding up the chef. The men around him nodded and ran off, Naruto calmly walked out of the cupboard and dashed into the living room, which was thankfully empty and quickly proceeded up the stairs.

The blond teen jumped behind a sculpture as Isamu and a guard ran past, thankfully neither of which was carrying the crown. Naruto smiled to himself as he ran, the door that the crown was supposedly behind came into his sight. It was black, as opposed to the brown of most of the doors in the house, an alarm attached to it set to call the police if the door was broken down by force, oh well. Naruto's foot came back and booted the door off of it's hinges the alarm sounded, thankfully there were no guards left to hear it and the police would think it was set off because of the fire anyway.

Besides the door there wasn't really anything protecting the crown, and Naruto had to admit the thing did look authentic. It was resting inside a glass case, the blond's right fist came back and crackled with white lightning before Naruto drove it through the glass, shattering the case on impact before scooping up the crown and placing it inside the bag on his back. The blond haired teen smirked to himself as he zipped the bag up.

"Like taking candy from a baby." Naruto stated before stopping and actually considering that statement for a second, actually now that he thought about it. Taking candy from a baby was a hell of a lot harder than people ever gave it credit for, he really needed a new phrase for times like this.

**XXX**

For any of you lucky bastards that have never woken up from being beaten into an unconscious state, lucky fuckers that you are, allow me to tell you what waking up feels like. First you get your sense of touch back, you still feel numb as fuck, but you can at least feel all of your limbs. Next comes your hearing, the steady beeping of a heart rate monitor, finally your eyes will start to open. The second that they do open however you will likely shut them again, because light hurts when you first wake up.

"Son of a bitch," Naruto groaned out as his eyes opened for the second time as they tried to adjust to the light. The smell of antiseptic, white room, cream coloured sheets, heart rate monitor beeping steadily next to him, a hospital. Honestly Naruto was surprised that he woke up at all, after using his incomplete technique the blond knew he would have partially cooked his organs so unless he had gotten medical attention fast then he should have been a corpse not long after using that attack.

The blonds mind drifted slightly, Kushina, the red head had looked like she was in worse shape than he was before he passed out. Naruto honestly wondered if she was still alive, if she was it would be something like a miracle because from what he saw of her injuries she shouldn't be. That being said he shouldn't be alive either so maybe God was feeling generous with his miracles that day. Naruto pushed his body to move into a sitting position, he was in a single room, no other patient, he looked down, a hospital gown. Naruto briefly wondered whether the nurse that changed him had checked out his package before discarding the idea, it didn't really matter.

Naruto's arms were like lead weights as he forced them to move and grab the small button next to his bed, the blond had been in enough hospitals over the years to know that this button would summon a nurse to the room. Or it would pump him full of morphine, personally he thought either was good. The button was pressed and since Naruto didn't start feeling light headed or giddy he assumed that the button was for the nurse, or he was already doped up on so much morphine that the amount that the button added to his system didn't really make a difference, again he felt either was good. As it turned out the button was for the nurse as the door to his room opened less than five minutes later and a woman in a white uniform stuck her head in.

"Oh you're awake!, how do you feel?" The woman asked entering the room, Naruto noted that she had brown hair and purple markings on her cheeks, now there was something you didn't see every day.

"Numb, not in pain and I don't feel light headed, I just feel numb, I also feel like I want to go back to sleep." Naruto answered getting a nod from the nurse.

"The numbness is to be expected, you may start to feel some pain later on please call a nurse if that is the case, as for wanting to go back to sleep that is completely understandable as your body has probably not healed completely yet. Still considering the way you were brought in it's a miracle that you're still alive." The nurse replied, Naruto nodded in understanding.

"Hey was a woman with red hair brought in with me?" Naruto asked as he laid back down onto the bed, the nurse nodded.

"Yes, I take it you mean Kushina." The nurse inquired getting Naruto to nod. "She is still recovering, her wounds were far worse than your own but she did wake up briefly yesterday for around five minutes before going back to sleep. Like you she is ridiculously lucky to still be alive." The nurse answered, "Do you need anything else?" The woman asked, Naruto shook his head before laying back down on the pillow and passing out. The woman exited the room quietly and looked into the face of a very serious Gai Maito.

"Is he asleep?" Gai inquired, the woman nodded her head. "Thank you Rin, I know you don't agree with me but thank you none the less." Rin nodded again a hard look on her face before moving off, Gai turned his head slightly to gaze at the man next to him. His silver grey hair stuck up to the side, an eye patch over his left eye, blue face mask and a bored expression on his face. "Kakashi do you think I'm a monster for what I've done?" Gai asked, self-loathing in his tone, the eye patch wearing man sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"That would depend on what you were talking about, if you mean do I think you're a monster for deliberately paying off the guards to not interfere with the two on twenty fight between your two students and those thugs then yes to some degree or another I do think you're a monster." Kakashi admitted, before sighing again.

"That being said I am just as much a monster as you are for helping you do this, Gai we're monsters nothing will change that. But if what we do can help more people than it harms maybe that makes it worth it in the end." The silver haired man added, "What did you want this to teach them Gai?You're not the kind of person to do this for no reason." The silver haired man finished, his eyes narrowing slightly as he completed his question.

"I wanted it to impress upon both of them that the threat of death right now was very real. Those two, they are strong. Not as strong as a C rank fighter yet, but they are well on their way. The only reason they lost that fight was because of numbers, if they had fought those twenty people in twenty one on one matches they would have won, they were simply overwhelmed." Gai continued, the look of self-loathing never leaving his face.

"But the fact that they are strong was also their greatest weakness, I could tell from when Naruto told me about the assassin's that broke into their apartment that he was starting to see Mizuki and his underlings as a joke. A group of people that weren't any real threat to him because he could destroy their normal members so easily and Kushina was no better. They failed to understand the severity of the situation that they found themselves in. It would get them killed if they kept that up, sooner or later." Gai continued, Kakashi nodded before continuing as the Green Beast didn't seem to want to continue talking.

"So you let a group of twenty people almost kill the two in order to make them see exactly how much shit they were in, fair enough it's something of a sound plan. Though the only reason I would call this even slightly sound is because you, Rin and me were all on the roof tops near by had anything happened that we knew they couldn't handle happen, like Mizuki or Aoi showing up. Though I have to admit that wound that the red head got stretched Rin's healing abilities. Then again if Rin really thought she couldn't handle it she would have made us take down those people as soon as she saw the red head hurt." Kakashi commented before swinging his gaze back to Gai. "Still that wasn't the only reason for this was it?" Kakashi continued, his voice didn't hold a tone of accusation to it, rather he was stating a simple fact.

"True," Gai admitted, "This attack on the two of them also managed to serve another couple of purposes. First I managed to bribe the right people and now Mizuki thinks they're both dead and it's going to stay that way for the next few weeks, or even the next few months depending on how long what I've got planned takes. Thankfully I've already got a place to hide the two of them and as long as Mizuki thinks they're dead he'll grow complacent and relaxed, they can use that time to train, get stronger, until they can crush the man." Gai took a deep breath in.

"The second was that this incident will push the two of them to be better, fight harder and get stronger far more than any other form of motivation could have. Nothing like the fear of death to make someone improve, not that there wasn't the fear of death in them before but there is a very large difference in knowing that death could happen and almost dying. It will give them a push that I am sure they are going to need before the end." Gai finished, Kakashi sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"How do you plan on getting them out of here without attracting anyone's attention?" Kakashi asked, Gai shrugged.

"That's the easy part actually, all I need to do is put in an order for some medical supplies in bulk and have the two hide in a couple of containers." Gai admitted, Kakashi nodded in return.

"And what about Ichiraku's? Teuchi will most likely be targeted." Kakashi asked.

"I brought out Teuchi around a week back, as for the man himself and his daughter they're safe in an apartment that I own. They know to keep their heads down and not leave until this all blows over, it was the least I could do for them after encouraging Naruto to fight in his restaurant and making Teuchi a target." Gai replied, Kakashi sighed but had one more question to ask.

"Where are those two going to stay." The silver haired man asked, flicking his head towards the room Naruto was currently sleeping in.

"I have some spare rooms in the basement levels of the Gym, they'll more or less be living in the C and B rank training area's." Gai replied, Kakashi nodded before turning away and walking down the hall at a sedate pace, making his walk look just as lazy as the man himself appeared to be.

"We're both monsters Gai," The silver haired man called back. "The only thing that really separates us from Mizuki is that you and I want to build something better for everybody and don't mind getting our hands dirty or manipulating other people to do that. While Mizuki only wants to make things better for Mizuki and to hell with everyone else, in the end Gai only time is going to tell if all the downright disgusting and evil things we do will pay off. Either way I'm sure there's a special spot reserved in hell for the two of us, guess we'll only find out when we die if everything we did was worth it." Kakashi finished as he turned a corner and vanished out of sight, Gai just nodded grimly before turning and walking away himself, Gai didn't do it often but right now he needed to get drunk, badly.

**XXX**

Naruto groaned as he woke again, his body protested as the blond haired Chakra user pulled himself up into a seated position. The steady beep of the heart rate monitor next to him had been joined by another, he was no longer in the same room, over to his right was a familiar looking red head. Good she was okay, Naruto's gaze turned to his right arm and the blond haired man grimaced. The scars weren't huge but they were visible, his entire right arm had small white scar lines running up and down it, shit if this was how his arm looked Kushina's stomach was probably a hell of a lot worse.

The blond reached out and hit the button for the nurse, the same brown haired woman peered into his room less than five minutes later. Naruto gave the now familiar nurse a cheerful wave.

"How are you?" Rin asked, Naruto just gave a small laugh.

"Pretty good, how long have I been out?" He inquired, a small smile on his face. The woman gave him a flat stare for a second.

"You mean since you first came in or since the last time we spoke?" Naruto considered the question for a second.

"Both." Rin sighed before looking at the monitors around him.

"The last time we spoke was around a day ago, you came in around three weeks back. You've drifted in and out of conciousness since then but to the best of my knowledge you were never lucid enough to talk to anyone else." The nurse informed him, Naruto just looked at her with disbelief for a second.

"Three weeks?" He asked, she nodded.

"Three weeks." Rin confirmed, Naruto fell back into his pillow.

"Fuck."

**Chapter Seven- End **


	8. Chapter 8

**Naruto of the White Thunderstorm**

**Arc Three: The Downfall **

**Authors Note-**

Okay Here's chapter 8 the first chapter of the third arc of Naruto of the White Thunderstorm. Where Naruto and Kushina will start to wage a two person war on Mizuki's part of Aoi's organisation. Also a couple of people have pointed out that so far this story is mostly just fight scene after fight scene with a small bit of Naruto's past involved along with another small bit of character development.

This is true.

That being said it is a little hard to write a story with a heap of character development when you only really have two characters to interact with each other with no real supporting characters other than Gai and Genma. Who only really know the two in a professional level.

For those that have been wondering about character development and when we will be seeing more of it along with more characters appearing and staying as either main character or major supporting characters wonder no more. A major supporting character will be introduced in either the chapter 9 or 10. This characters name is Yugao Uzuki and yes she is a prison guard not a prisoner as well as after Mizuki is dealt with Sasuke Uchiha will be coming onto the scene. Sasuke will be another major supporting character and he will be nowhere near as much of a douchebag as he was in cannon.

With the introduction of these two it gives me a few more people for Naruto and Kushina to interact with and will let me develop their characters a little more. I'm not sure who will be the next character introduced after that but you can count on the fact that once Mizuki has been dealt with that a lot more supporting characters will be introduced, some may only be in passing and I will come back to them later but they will at least be introduced.

This will give me a far larger roster to work with as far as character interactions go so there will be some more talking and character development at that point.

Until then lets all just enjoy the mindless violence shall we?

**Story Start-**

Naruto ducked low, allowing the kick of his red haired partner to fly over his head. A few blond hairs being pulled out by the kicks force and reminding Naruto just how close he had come to having his face caved in. The blond stepped in his right arm swinging up, aiming to impact the side of Kushina's body. The red haired woman grimaced slightly and twisted allowing the strike to catch nothing but air before returning with a punch of her own at her blond haired sparing partners face. Naruto gritted his teeth and lowered his head, grunting as the punch slipped off his forehead as opposed to his nose, that had been a close one.

Naruto's arms shot out gripping Kushina behind her head and pulling her in close as his knee flew up, aiming to hit the red head in her sternum. Unfortunately for the blond haired Muay Thai user that was exactly what his sparing partner had been waiting for. Kushina's arms came down, crossing in front of her and blocking the knee, Naruto's left elbow came down aiming to hit the red head in the back of her skull. Kushina dropped, her arms wrapping around the back of Naruto's leg as she drove her shoulder into his hips and forced their fight to the ground. The air rushed out of the blonds lungs as he hit the dirt floor.

Kushina acted quickly, her body almost flipped as she raced forward to completely secure the blonds leg, Naruto didn't have much experience at all when it came to fighting on the ground. He did however have extremely fast reflexes as well as fairly impressive flexibility. Naruto's left leg whipped up and kicked out at Kushina, one of the red heads arms unwound from the blonds right leg and blocked the blow. Naruto wasn't deterred in the slightest, as soon as he felt the impact of his shin on Kushina's arm Naruto changed his plan of attack, the blond twisted, placing his left foot on the red heads shoulder and kicking out hard, forcing Kushina to give up her grip on his leg.

Naruto rolled back, coming to his feet just in time to block Kushina's fist before it broke his nose. The blond pivoted, his right leg scything through the air and impacting with his sparing partners side with a satisfying thud. Kushina grunted at the impact before kicking out with her left leg and connecting cleanly with Naruto's thigh, her response was a hard punch to the gut making the red head gasp for breath and bend forward slightly. Kushina returned the favour, her left elbow snapping up and nailing Naruto in the chin, snapping the blond haired man's head back with an audible crack. The red head followed her attack up swiftly landing a jab, cross, body hook combination on her sparing partners relatively unprotected head and body.

Naruto's body rocked back, the blond haired fighter gritted his teeth and planted his right foot down hard, stabilising him. Naruto's left leg snapped up the ball of his foot nailing Kushina in the chin with a front kick, the red haired girls head snapping back like his own had mere moments before. Naruto charged in, landing a hard body shot to the red heads torso, Kushina gasped for breath before getting her body back under control. Her arms whipped up and pulled Naruto into a clinch as her legs tensed and she jumped off of the ground, Kushina's knee nailing her blond haired opponent in his sternum, causing Naruto to exhale and cough, fuck that hurt like a bitch. The red head didn't let up in the slightest, her left arm dropping down to smash an elbow into the back of Naruto's skull.

The blond haired martial artists left arm raced up, pushing Kushina's elbow off to the side and allowing it to pass him by. While strength didn't count for everything in a fight it was times like this that Naruto was glad that he had the option to fall back on it at times. Though Kushina was undoubtedly the more skilled and faster of the two of them, Naruto made up for it with his superior power and experience. The blond haired fighter forced himself up and stepped in close to his sparing partner as Kushina pulled back, Naruto grinned in grim satisfaction as he landed a heavy elbow to the red haired woman's mid section, doubling her over. Kushina dropped like a stone to the floor and used her arms as a pivot to swing around her larger opponent before nailing Naruto in the kidney with a sharp kick from the floor making the blond stumble forward in pain. What the hell was it going to take to put the woman down!?

Naruto spun on the ball of his foot, his right leg coming high and scything through the air aiming to take Kushina's head off of her shoulders. The red head twisted, her left arm coming up to block the incoming blow while her own right leg shot out at Naruto's skull, intent on claiming his head before he claimed hers. Naruto's own left arm came up, the two martial artists grunted as their kicks bounced off their opponents guard. The two charged in aiming to get in close and finish their opponent in one more blow. Naruto's blond hair glittered with sweat as he raced forward while Kushina's own crimson locks fanned out behind her like a river of blood. Naruto's right arm left his face, racing at his opponents exposed temple, Kushina's right arm came out, her fist screaming through the air as it sought to land itself firmly on Naruto's jaw line.

"BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP!" The sound of their timer going off stopped the two fighters dead, each attack stopping a bare half inch off landing on its intended target. Naruto grunted in annoyance, an action that Kushina mimicked.

"Double knock-out." The blond haired man growled out, a snarl forming on his face.

"Indeed," Kushina agreed, a snarl mirroring Naruto's own appearing on her face. Kushina was many things, one of them was highly competitive. The two relaxed, snarls disappearing as the adrenaline rush of battle wore off. Naruto sighed and looked up at the ceiling, it had been two weeks, two whole weeks since he had seen the sky. Getting out of hospital hadn't been that hard, Gai had just had the two of them hide inside a pair of crates that were delivered to his gym, fortunately the man could pass the crates off as medical supplies for his various business without anyone asking any questions.

Naruto's eyes swept over the training ground, it was large, that was probably the first thing that a person would notice about it. The training ground hidden under Gai's Gym, well maybe hidden was a bit of a stretch. People knew it was there Gai just didn't let just anyone come down and use it though, it had been built for a specific reason after all. The room/training ground was around twice the size of the gym above, an earthen floor, simulating the ground of The Arena, scattered throughout the underground training area were giant concrete pillars. The pillars numbered in the dozens and were there for more than just structural support, though they certainly fulfilled that roll as well. No the pillars were there to allow C rank fighters, and those thinking about advancing into C rank, to practice surface walking.

By applying Chakra to the bottom of ones foot at a steady rate it was possible to 'stick', for lack of a better term, to vertical surfaces or even stand on a ceiling. Gai had also informed the two that the surface walking doubled as a Chakra control exercise allowing them better control over their reserves and increasing them in size. The first few days had been painful, to say the least, Naruto was still sure he had a concussion. When it came to trying to walk up a vertical surface Kushina had managed it first, beating Naruto by a good two days. Though Gai had consoled the blond haired man informing him that his higher Chakra reserves made them harder to control.

Chakra was much like a muscle after all. The more you used it the stronger it became, so when it came to a competition of who had the bigger Chakra reserves a Naruto vs Kushina contest was hardly fair. From what little Naruto had been able to pick up about the red heads past from little titbits that Kushina had mentioned in passing from time to time, her family had known about her Chakra ability and hid it out of shame. So Kushina hadn't really had much practise in the use of her chains before coming to Konoha, leading her to have lower reserves when compared to Naruto who had been using his Chakra when he needed it for the last thirteen years. Though Naruto did wish that he had known how to walk on walls and water when he was outside Konoha, that would have made stealing shit so much easier.

The other parts of the training ground that were not centred around pillars or flat hard packed ground were deep pools of water. Which had been the next Chakra control exercise that Gai had wanted the two to master, water walking, which was also a popular battlefield choice in C rank and above Arena battles.

E and D rank Arena fights were always something to watch but it was C rank and up where things got really interesting. It was in those rankings where Chakra users began to show truly superhuman feats in battle. Walking of sheer vertical surfaces, fighting on water, leaping in between tightly packed columns all the while trading blows with your opponent. The audience loved it, the normal people, the so called 'pure' people outside loved those matches like little else. Naruto sighed as he walked over to the timer and turned it off before collapsing down onto the hard packed ground with a sigh. The blond haired man reached out and snagged a water bottle off the ground from next to the time and took a deep gulp. The water, despite being room temperature, was still the greatest thing that Naruto had ever tasted, and yes Naruto would be willing to swear by that.

Kushina collapsed across from her blond haired sparing partner and quickly grabbed her own water bottle, drinking for it as if it were water taken directly from Gods own private spring. Actually considering how dry Kushina and Naruto's throats felt at that second the water may as well have been. Kushina looked up at the ceiling her eyes turning slightly misty as if lost in a memory and maybe she was, how would Naruto know? He was a thief not a damn psychiatrist.

"It's been two weeks since we saw the sky." The red head stated, Naruto nodded his assent. He knew that the red head was just stating a fact not really looking for input. "I won't say that these last two weeks haven't been worth it but still this is the first time I've really felt like a prisoner since arriving here." Kushina stated, Naruto nodded, it was something that he personally both loved and despised about Konoha. The illusion of freedom that it gave its occupants.

Here Chakra users could own their own business, learn a trade, become a professional fighter if that's what they really wanted, trade stocks, you name it and a prisoner of Konoha could probably do it. That was the illusion of freedom that the prison provided, they had everything most people could ever want inside its walls. Except for the one thing that Naruto had valued the most ever since he had first started running, they didn't have their freedom. Merely a shallow reminder of it, and that was probably the focal point of Naruto's hate towards Konoha.

Of course it could have easily been worse, they could have been locked up like animals. Treated even worse than they were at the moment, hell the only reason that Hi no Kuni treated them this well in the first place was so they would be more likely to help them and bolster the army numbers in case of invasion. But still, that illusion of freedom, it hurt. Kushina laid back, sweat still glistening from her hair making dirt stick to it as the red mane hit the floor.

"Hey Naruto?" Kushina questioned, the blond haired man looked over at the red head and gave her the go ahead to continue. "When I was bleeding out," Kushina continued, Naruto's eyes flickered over the red heads mid section. The blond knew that there would have to be some bad scaring on Kushina's torso but he hadn't seen it. Since she had woken up and been able to move around Kushina had been keeping her stomach concealed with bandages, shirts, towels, you name it. Either way she seemed to not want to let him, or anyone else for that matter, ever see the scar tissue on her stomach.

"And you thought I way dying you said that you wanted to go to the same place as me, why was that?" Kushina finished her question, Naruto sighed of course she had been awake for that. Why couldn't he ever catch a break?

"Exactly what it sounded like." The blond haired martial artist replied, seeming slightly uncomfortable with the subject. Kushina's eyes hardened, the red heads almost amethyst coloured eyes seemingly glinting in the artificial light.

"Really," Kushina replied her tone blank. "I won't beat around the bush here Naruto, we both know that you've picked up on a few things about me. I killed someone in front of you and I didn't even so much as blink at doing it and after I did that I turn around and went back to bed and had a good nights sleep. We both know I killed people long before I came here and from what I've seen of you, you're no different. So why exactly do you want to go to the same level of hell as me?" Kushina asked, Naruto just shrugged at the woman who was still lying down.

"Who knows, maybe it was just a spur of the moment thing. People act in mysterious, and often stupid, ways when they are about to die." Naruto replied, Kushina looked him over for a second before mercifully letting the subject drop. Honestly Naruto had no idea why he had said that, he was probably right when he said it was a spur of the moment thing, after all if you had to die you may as well spend the afterlife with someone that you actually liked and Naruto had precious few people that he liked. Still whatever level of hell that Kushina believed she would end up in Naruto was sure that the level he would be sent to was far lower, he had done worse things than just killing a man or a woman.

The two simply sat at the centre of the training ground, neither said anything. There were an infinite number of ways in this world to build a friendship regardless of how tedious that friendship was, fight a group of people that wanted to kill you with a person by your side just happened to be one of them.

**Two Months Later**

Naruto sighed as he pulled himself out of the shower, God the hot water on his poor abused muscles felt good. The blond haired hand for hire toweled himself off, it was a Sunday and the only day that Gai ever gave them off while they were stuck down in the training facility underneath the gym. Hell the man didn't even make them stop training for broken bones or snapped tendons, no if that happened Gai just brought down a healer that he knew he could trust, paid for out of the man's own pocket no less, to fix Kushina and he back into fighting shape. Didn't stop the muscle soreness though, oh dear sweet God could that be painful.

Naruto quickly pulled on his clothes, a basic pair of black pants and a grey long sleeved shirt, considering they were underground and in a controlled environment Naruto didn't see the need to ware shoes. The showers were somewhat communal, oh they had a door on the front of them that blocked off people seeing who was inside but they were situated one next to another and you could hear other people pretty easily, hence the term somewhat communal.

The blond haired man smiled as he made his way out of the showers and down to his room, the room itself was nothing special, after all the training area was not made with people living inside it as priority. Honestly the rooms that he and Kushina had were old converted storage rooms, rooms that would be changed back to storage rooms as soon as they left, whenever Gai deemed them ready to. The man seemed determined to make them into fighting machines before he even thought of allowing the two to leave, not that Naruto found that to be particularly surprising. Kushina and he had almost been killed by those twenty thugs and Gai had put a fair amount of time and money into training the two of them up to take down Mizuki and eventually Aoi. The man wouldn't want his investment to be wasted because the two of them didn't have enough training.

Naruto opened the door to his make shift room, it was small, a mere one point five meter by one point five meter square. The walls, floor and ceiling were all blank concrete with no form of paint on them at all, though Naruto was quite glad that Gai had placed a small rug on the ground that covered the centre of the room so at least he didn't have to wake up and step onto cold concrete every morning. Other than the rug however it was a very barren room, a single bed in one corner and a table in the other, the table had on it several pairs of clothes for him to wear, mostly training outfits, along with a pair of sneakers beneath it. On the up side, while living down here all Naruto had to do was drop his dirty clothes off in a hamper outside of the shower room and someone else would take care of the laundry.

The blond haired man laid down on his bed, god he needed a nap. Naruto felt his eyelids become heavy and begin to droop. He didn't fight it, the blond haired man surrendered to the encroaching darkness and fell into slumber.

Unfortunately for Naruto his sleep lasted nowhere near as long as he may have wished it. Less than two hours after Naruto had settled in for his nap there came a series of sharp knocks on his door. The blond sat up, blearily rubbing his eyes and wishing he could go back to sleep and ignore whoever was on the other side of the door. A sharp knock got his attention as the person on the other side, most likely Kushina, tried to get his attention. Naruto hauled his body out of bed, pulling on his pants as he made his way to the door and wrenched it open. Naruto's first reaction was one of pain as the lights in the hallway hurt his rather vulnerable eyes that hadn't acclimatised to that much light after being closed for so long. As predicted Kushina was standing in front of him, fist up raised ready to knock again. She wore a simple pair of blue pants and a white long sleeved T-shirt, like Naruto the red haired woman had chosen to forgo any form of footwear.

"Good, I was afraid that I'd actually have to go inside to wake your lazy ass up." Kushina stated, her right foot tapping lightly on concrete floor while her left hand twitched. Something that Naruto knew after observing his red haired room mate was a sign of impatience.

"Well I'm awake now, what did you need?" Naruto asked, his eyes narrowing slightly at the reminder of being awoken. His sleep was supposed to be more of a ten to fifteen hour hibernation, the blond would admit to being a little pissed that it was stopped early.

"Gai wanted to talk to us, he told me to come and get you before taking you to that office off the side of the training ground." Kushina answered turning on the ball of her foot to face down the hall and walking away without waiting for an answer, Naruto just followed along behind her, not even bothering to put on a shirt. The blond haired man fully intended to go back to sleep after this meeting was concluded so what was the point. Well at least that was half the reason, the other half was that he was starting to get a six-pack and what was the point in having one of those if you didn't show it off from time to time?

"Any idea what Gai wants to talk about?" Naruto inquired.

"About Mizuki and his thugs," Kushina answered as the two took a corner. "Apparently Gai managed to track down most of the hideouts and places of business that Mizuki uses from what I can gather he probably wants to help us plan out our attack on the bastard." The red head finished as she began to slow down as the office door came into view.

"I see," Naruto's mind began running through scenarios before stopping. There was no point in running through scenarios before he knew how Mizuki was making his money and who was in charge of what along with what brought in the most cash. The blond couldn't help the vicious grin that came to his face, Naruto had been fortunate, or unfortunate depending on who you asked, enough to be in Roanapur when Chang had taken down a rival Triad. Thankfully the blond hadn't been involved directly as he had already made his money and was about to head out of the city when the gang war started.

Chang's dissection of the rival Triad had been something to see. First the man had taken down his rivals two biggest money makers, on the same day, leaving the rival Triad scrambling to find a way to increase their revenue. As soon as that was done the money men such as their accountants and the leaders were killed to prevent the rival Triad from mounting an effective defence. What followed was nothing less than a slaughter, from then on out Chang methodically took apart every money making operation of of the opposing Triad, either converting it to his own where he could or destroying it completely if taking it over was not an option. It was truly impressive to watch, two days after the gang war started it was over, Chang had won. Perhaps even more importantly he had control of an amazing seventy eight percent of the opposing Triads businesses and investments at the end of that time.

Naruto wasn't arrogant enough to believe that he could pull off the same thing that Chang had, the blond seriously doubted that when Kushina and he finished with Mizuki that they would be able to control even fifty percent of the man's assets. Then again considering the kind of things that Mizuki's boys seemed to do Naruto wasn't sure if he wanted to leave anything to control, actually in this case it was probably better that he didn't. After all Mizuki was just a part of a larger organisation, it would be better if as little as possible of Mizuki's operation was left intact after he was dealt with.

Still right now what Naruto was interested in was not how much of the rival organisation that Chang had under his control by the end of that gang war but rather how he took apart the rival organisation. It had been done so quickly and smoothly that the man had to have been doing something right, maybe he should try to emulate Chang's plan of attack when it came to dealing with Mizuki's gang?

Kushina opened the door to the small office and stepped inside, Naruto following hot on her heels. The dimentions of the room were the same as Naruto's own make shift bedroom but instead of housing a person this 'office' had been set up to coordinate and plan attacks against Mizuki and against Aoi's organisation as a whole. A single table had been set up in the centre of the room a map of the prison resting on top of it, blue and red squares dotted the map. Blue for friendly territory/places that were outside of Mizuki's, or Aoi's, control. Red was for places that were inside Mizuki's control, Gai hadn't listed the others that worked under Aoi on the map just yet. They would have to deal with Mizuki first before they attracted anyone else's attention, after all even if everything was going to hell Mizuki would never let on that something was going wrong. To admit that would mean that Aoi might replace him, while in some ways that worked in Mizuki's favour as he could deal with problems in his areas as he saw fit it also was a major weakness as the man would be too fearful to ask for help even if he needed it.

Gai looked up from his chair next to the map, a cup of green tea in his hand. A serious expression on his face as he contemplated the first real move of the war against Aoi's organisation.

"So you're here," Gai said, Naruto could tell the man was not stating the obvious for the hell of it, rather Gai was so absorbed by his thoughts that his body was running on auto pilot at that point in time. "Take a seat, we'll get started in a second." The Green Beast added, gesturing to the two unoccupied seats on either side of them table. Kushina took her seat first looking down at the part of the map closest to her before grimacing, the red outnumbered the blue, something Naruto found mirrored at the part of the map his own chair was in front of, Gai took a deep breath and his eyes seemed to focus.

"Alright now that you're both here we need to start coming up with a strategy to destabilise Mizuki's operations before taking his part of Aoi's organisation apart and killing the man. Fortunately due to Aoi's habit of replacing people he sees as either incompetent or unworthy Mizuki is unlikely to report any disturbances to the man, so at least the two of you won't have to worry about the rest of Aoi's organisation until Mizuki has been dealt with." Gai told the two, his eyes not leaving the map. "First off do either of you have any ideas or questions?" Gai inquired, Kushina nodded.

"Yes I've got a question," The red head replied, her eyes going back to the map again. "How well structured is Mizuki's operation?" Kushina inquired, "Is there a clear chain of command or is it a haphazard affair?" Gai thought about the question for a second.

"A little of both," The man answered. "There is a certain amount of structure to it so that people know who to report to and where they need to go to do what. But after that its not really very structured, there's no clear chain of command that is over reaching for Mizuki's entire operation. Only people that run each area, after that they report to Mizuki directly and he does not have a second in command. I think that Mizuki feels that someone in a position like that may one day betray him, honestly I think he may be right." Kushina nodded at this knowledge and looked back at the map, her violet eyes hard as she considered her next move.

"How does Mizuki make the most money?" Naruto asked after a second, Gai looked at the map and placed his hands on two deep red locations.

"These are where Mizuki makes the bulk of his profits, they're fight clubs like mine in the loosest sense." The black haired man replied, "The main difference between my club and Mizuki's is that I don't allow certain things in mine. No death matches, no drugs, don't serve people who are drunk alcohol, and so on. Mizuki doesn't have any of those problems, death matches, selling drugs, ect, they aren't as popular or well run as my own club but they do draw him a vast profit. I think the fact that most of the fights are fixed unless someone in the crowed jumps in of their own accord turns a lot of people off them." Gai stated, Naruto nodded as he leaned back considering his next move, still the blond had to wonder; just how many fight clubs were there in Konoha? Hmm, there was question he would ask Gai later, Naruto was actually quite curious about the answer.

"We can't go after the head directly," Kushina stated after a moment. "Attacking Mizuki head on is like painting a bullseye on our backs to the rest of Aoi's organisation. We simply aren't ready to take them on just yet, first step to successfully taking out a rival business is to take away their customers. Unfortunately we can't really do that," The red head stated sigh a sigh, Gai and Naruto nodded at her statement. To take away Mizuki's customers would mean that they would need to be able to give them an alternative to Mizuki's establishments, Gai already ran one fight club and Naruto seriously doubted the man would be willing to front up the money for one or two more simply to take business away from Mizuki. Hell even if Gai did front up the money it would take to long to set another couple of clubs up anyway, Kushina and he didn't exactly have a heap of time.

"Where does Mizuki get the drugs from?" Naruto asked trying for a different avenue of attack. "If we could cut off supply to his clubs and dealers that should strike a fairly hard blow to his monthly profits." The blond stated looking over at Gai who shook his head.

"While that is a sound plan in theory it wouldn't work in practise. Mizuki doesn't grow the drugs himself only distribute them, growing them is the job of another of Aoi's lieutenants and since you two need to stay off of the radar for as long as possible when it comes to Aoi you won't be able to take care of Mizuki's drug supply." Gai finished, Naruto looked over at the black haired man.

"Who runs what when it comes to Aoi's organisation anyway? More importantly how the fuck does someone even get drugs into a prison!?" The blond asked, that information could be crucial later on it was better to know it as soon as possible. Gai's eyes didn't move off of the map, the man's mouth still locked in a grimace.

"Mizuki himself takes care of the protection rackets and those two fight clubs. Renga runs the sex trade such as strip clubs and prostitutes, Ruiga is in charge of the production and distribution of drugs. Jiga takes care of the gambling dens that Aoi's organisation operates while Aoi himself doesn't really run anything any more. He's gotten to the point where he can just sit back and count his money while the other four handle the day to day business only involving him in case of disputes or decisions that could affect the profits made by a large margin in one way or the other. By the way Ruiga, Renga and Juga are all brothers and considering the way they were named I think their parents may have hated them." Gai tried to finish with a bit of humour but in the grim and serious atmosphere it fell flat.

"As for your second question Naruto, in this prison if you have enough money you can do almost anything. The public already thinks of us as monsters so there won't be any outcry if we kill each other off, most of the guards are corrupt or hate Chakra users so there's not much point in going to them for help. In here might makes right is simply taken to the extreme." Gai finished grimly causing Naruto and Kushina to nod.

"Alright so taking away his customers is out and at this point in time we can't take away his drugs, what does that leave us with?" Kushina said, she wasn't really asking a question. More stating the situation while thinking about it, Naruto's hand brushed over one of the fight clubs.

"Gai who runs those fight clubs?" Naruto asked.

"The first one is run by a man by the name of Han'nya while the second is run by Beshimi." Gai answered, Naruto nodded before posing his next question.

"Do they fight in the club as well?" The blond asked, Gai nodded he was beginning to see where this chain of questioning was probably going.

"Yes, Mizuki made it a requirement that to manage those clubs you also had to be the clubs champion, that way they could deal with all of the other fighters should any trouble start." Gai answered, Naruto nodded.

"What if we killed the two of them, in the club by fighting them in a death match?" Naruto asked, his plan beginning to come together in his mind. "By killing the two of them in their own clubs we would not only deliver a blow to Mizuki's profits but also one to the morale of the people working under him." Gai nodded, a grimace still on his face.

"That's a good starting point but it wont take Mizuki more than a day, two at most, to place people back in charge of those clubs and have them up and running again." The green beat answered, Naruto nodded while Kushina looked at the map intently.

"Does Mizuki own any businesses or does he just shake them down?" The red head inquired, Gai's hands moved and pointed to ten different buildings outlined on the map.

"Mizuki owns these bars and has his people run them. It's also where the gangs he sends out go to drop off their ill gotten gains" Gai answered, Naruto smirked almost sensing where the red heads thoughts would go next.

"How difficult would it be to destroy the buildings and kill the people running them?" Kushina asked, a grim smile came to Gai's face.

"Not very," The man answered, the smile becoming more pronounced as Kushina nodded at the man's words.

"What about using the fight clubs as a distraction?" Naruto asked, "We take care of the clubs one day and while Mizuki uses the next day to find a replacement we take care of those bars, even if he manages to get the fight clubs back up and running his revenue will still be crippled." The blond offered, Gai nodded.

"A sound plan so far, your next step should probably be taking out the gang members themselves. You wont be leaving here for awhile so I'll use that time to come up with a list of people that Mizuki uses to shake down businesses. That way even when he finally gets those bars back up and running his income is still crippled." Gai stated, the two across the table nodded.

"After that we should hit the clubs again," Kushina stated drawing Naruto and Gai's eyes to her. "The first time we should only kill the person in charge but the second time we should kill every fighter. That would cripple him further as it would make it harder for Mizuki to rig the fights, and not killing anyone but the manager the first time will mean that Mizuki will focus on getting the fight clubs back up and running and we can use them as a distraction if we killed every body the first time he might reinforce the security at the bars and we don't want that." Naruto and Gai nodded.

"After that Mizuki won't be able to ignore us any more." Naruto stated, his eyes glued on the arena. "After that we should challenge him directly in The Arena." The blond stated confidently, Gai looked at him surprised.

"Why The Arena when you're trying to stay off of Aoi's radar?" He inquired, Naruto shrugged.

"I'm sure that Mizuki would have left some records of Kushina and me somewhere. Once he's taken down it's only a matter of time before before Aoi knows about us. We're better of making him learn of us on our own terms and hopefully scare some of his gang off, theatricality can be a powerful weapon if used properly, even if the action will draw a target on our backs. Besides if the other three of Aoi's lieutenants join the tournament in a few months we can kill them in that. All we would need is an invitation in. Something tells me that if we crawl our way up to D rank in the next two weeks and then kill Mizuki and secure ourselves a C ranking the audience will see Kushina and I as rising stars. Once that happens the prison will probably give us an invitation to the tournament to attract more customers. In addition to that killing Mizuki in front of an audience will have a huge effect of the morale of Aoi's men." Naruto answered, Kushian and Gai nodded slowly. If it worked then that plan could help them quite a lot.

"Alright that should be enough for now." The Green Beast stated standing up from his chair. "Details still need to be ironed out completely but this is a good template to start from, I would recommend that you both go back to your rooms and get some rest tomorrow is another big day for you." Gai finished, Kushina stood, an action that Naruto followed as the three walked out of the makeshift office. Gai was right there were still the finer points to iron out but at least it was a good starting point.

**Two months later**

The blond haired figure stood at the centre of a group of high concrete pillars, groups of wooden training dummies surrounding him from every angle. Red boxing hand wraps could be seen around his fists, while ankle straps of the same colour could be found on his feet. White Karate Gi pants were around the man's waist, a purple flame like design on their left thigh and right shin. The figure exhaled, his muscles tensing before he exploded into action.

Naruto took less than a second to reach his first target, the training dummy in front of him. The blonds right hand lashed out slamming into the dummy's head, a sharp crack being heard as the wood split under the force of the impact. The blond twisted his body, his right arm coming back before spinning, Naruto's fist lashed out and the sound of wood snapping was heard as the dummy's head was taken off. He twisted, ducking low to avoid the strike of his imaginary foes and coming up inside what would have been their guard. Naruto's left arm snapped up, his elbow connecting cleanly with the dummy's chin, the sound of splintering wood could be heard as the elbow pulverised the dummy, smashing the wooden statues face so that it was little more than splinters.

Naruto jumped back, his left foot snapping up and colliding with the chin of another dummy, reducing the wooden statues jaw to splinters on impact. The remainder of the dummy's face soon followed as his jab punch connected dead centre with it's nose. Finally the sound of wood shattering was heard as Naruto's knee connected with the stomach of the wooden statue and tore through it as if the wood were nothing more than wet tissue paper, the top half of the dummy flew away as Naruto landed his strike and leapt into the air, coming to rest on the side of a concrete pillar and in front of yet another practice dummy.

Four and a half months, he had been here for four and a half months. Naruto's left leg shot out, snapping off the dummy's head with a sharp crack, the blond leapt over the dummy and landed in front of his next wooden foe. His right arm rushed forward, the sound of wood shattering could be heard as Naruto drove his fist through the place a humans stomach would be and out the other side. The blond pushed off of the pillar again and took to the air, soaring over the dummies on the ground and landing on another pillar, left fist already moving as he landed. The dummy's face was reduced to splinters by the blow before the wooden statues head was removed entirely and then crushed by a front kick axe kick combination from the blond.

Naruto leapt yet again, landing lightly before a dummy on the ground. The blonds left leg blurred, snapping up in a round house at the dummy's head, ripping it clean off. The wooden dolls stomach was reduced to splinters by a hard jab to its body, Naruto followed by by breaking the stand it was on with a hard low round house with his right leg and then ripping the training dummy completely in half with a hard left front kick. Naruto dove forward and landed rolling forward rising in a fighting stance, his right arm drawn back, white lightning surged around his fingers coating them lightly in lightning Chakra as he drove them forward. There was no resistance to the blow, his hand ripping out of the back of the dummy's head with the sound of splintering wood. Naruto exhaled and with drew his arm, sweat coating his body.

That little technique had been one that he had created after watching some old reruns and more recent matches of Kakashi Hatake. It was Naruto's first step in recreating the silver haired man's Lightning Blade technique. Well actually the blond wanted to do something else other than just recreate the attack but understanding the Lightning Blade was still the first step. So far Naruto felt it was going well, at the very least he had been able to give his hand a coating of Lightning Chakra and increase offencive power with it by piercing rather than shocking like he normally did. Of course the attack was nowhere near complete, if someone ran a dense amount of Chakra around their body for a brief second it would stop the attack. Naruto was still working on how to counter that, the easiest way would be to add more power but the blond had burned his hand the last time he had tried that. Gai thought it might be a Chakra control issue so Naruto had been working on that along with another couple of possible solutions, it was slow going though. That being said Naruto like to think he was making progress.

Gai had deemed them ready to leave yesterday, they would begin their plan to bring Mizuki to his knees tonight. Naruto was just getting some last minute training in before they left, after all Kushina and he would be going to different places once they were out of the Dojo. Naruto himself would be going to one of Mizuki's wonderful little fight clubs and Kushina would be going to the other, thankfully they both still had a place to live as Gai had seen to it that their apartment was not given to any new arrivals. Unfortunately according to the green spandex clad martial artist most of their stuff had been stolen, most meaning the microwave, the couch, the T.V hell apparently whoever robed them had even taken the cutlery, plates and glasses. Only really their beds remained, Naruto doubted that either Kushina or his own clothes were still in the apartment because apparently the wardrobes were missing as well. When he found who did that Naruto was going to stab them with a butter knife.

**XXX**

Somewhere in Konoha a part time thug and want-to-be assassin named Akio shivered. The wound that he had been given by the psycho blond ached, a reminder to never get stabbed by a butter knife again. Akio had actually developed a phobia of butter knives after that event, he would never let it happen again if he could help it. Oh well at least he got some revenge on the blond bastard and the red haired whore, sure they were dead but stealing and pawning their stuff had felt so good.

**XXX**

Naruto sighed as he looked out over the destroyed training dummies, no matter how you looked at it, it was more or less impossible to gain the muscle strength necessary to shatter training dummies like that with just four and a half months of hard training. Thankfully Chakra made a whole lot of things that should be impossible possible, one of the things that Kushina and he had been taught, and were well on their way to mastering, was how to direct their Chakra to a chosen body part in order to make it stronger, such as sending Chakra to your own thigh in order to kick harder. Every Chakra user did this unconsciously it was learning to do it consciously that was the problem, thankfully once you had it down even once it got a lot easier. After being able to send your Chakra to one limb in order to strengthen it all one had to do after that was practice practise practise, that was the only way to get better.

The blond sigh and began his walk out of the training room he didn't bother cleaning up the dummies, Naruto knew from experience that it was someone's job to do that. Under normal circumstances Naruto probably still would have cleaned them up anyway but considering what he would be doing later that night the blond felt like he could let something like that slide. It didn't take him long to reach his destination, the showers.

Naruto moaned in almost sexual pleasure as the hot water hit his body, oh God did it feel good. Still a hot shower after some training of any kind normally felt incredible. It was with great reluctance that Naruto shut off the water and stepped out of the shower fifteen minutes later, the blond haired lightning Chakra user towled off his body, his golden blond hair hair sticking to his head and not at all like the mess it normally was.

Naruto grabbed his clothes and slipped on his pants, as normal they were a pair of Karate Gi pants but unlike his more normal attire these were coloured a dark grey, almost black. The Gi pants made slight whooshing noises around the blonds ankles as he moved to pick up the next item. The Gi pants had been quite purposefully ripped around the feet giving them a rugged look. Naruto slipped into the next item of clothing, a Gi top that was the same dark grey as his pants. The sleeves had been torn off giving it the same rugged look as his pants. The make shift Gi was completed as Naruto pulled a black belt tight around his waist, as Naruto had mentioned to Gai two months ago, theatricality was a powerful weapon. Tonight the blond wanted to look like a completely untouchable monster. Sometimes it really was the clothes that made the man, though Naruto would admit that his look had been stolen off of Akuma from Street Fighter, now there was a hardcore badass. That man was a mass of pure awesome and win. And really if you had to base a badass performance off someone why not 'The Supreme Master Of The Fist!'

Naruto reached down and grabbed his ankle straps and pulled them on with practised ease while standing, practised ease meaning he didn't jump and hop around like a demented rabbit missing one leg while putting on said ankle straps. The blond strolled out of the showers whistling, his close to bare feet echoing on the concrete floor. Naruto was unsurprised to see Kushina waiting for him at the first corner that would lead them to Gai's makeshift office, her blood red hair up in a ponytail.

The red head was wearing a pair of white Gi pants, like Naruto's they had been ripped around feet and gave off a slight whooshing sound when Kushina moved. Black ankle straps could be seen as she moved while around her waist was a belt of black and purple cloth that looped around her waist several times before settling nicely on Kushina's hips. Naruto could make out the bandages around the red heads waist that were covered by her black Gi top, the Gi top had also had it's sleeves ripped off like his own with a purple flame like design on its back. While around her fists were boxing hand wraps also purple in colour. Naruto smiled upon see the hand wraps, she wasn't the only one wearing them after all. The blond had just finished tightening his own crimson wraps around his fists.

The two walked in silence, Naruto rolled his neck taking some satisfaction in the snapping and cracking sounds that came from the appendage. Kushina just threw him an odd look that Naruto shrugged off as they approached Gai's makeshift office, the man himself wouldn't be inside, what would be inside would be the map that each wanted to check one last time just to make sure they had the right address and some last additions for their clothes.

Naruto opened the office door and waved Kushina inside, the red head giving her blond haired sparing partner a nod of acknowledgement. Naruto quickly followed her inside and closed the door, his attention turning to the map almost immediately as Kushina went to the other side of the room and retrieved the last pieces of their outfits. Naruto's eyes didn't come away from the map for even a second as his left arm whipped up and snagged the mask that Kushina had just thrown at him out of mid air. The blond looked down, it was a mask depicting a face that was smiling. A wide red line that curved upwards for a mouth, a pair of black almond shaped holes for eyes, the final touch was the purple lightning bolt going down over the masks right eye, the mask of the smiling fool.

Naruto didn't waste a single second and placed the mask over his face, quickly applying his Chakra to the object to stick the mask to his skin. Naruto couldn't help but be impressed with whoever had made the mask, it was made of some kind of material that allowed Naruto to see out it without cutting off any of his vision. Somehow the mask was clear on the inside, Naruto had no idea how they had managed that. The blond looked up to see Kushina's own mask, hers was the same as his own except for two minor differences. The first was that the mouth on the red heads mask curved down instead of up and the second was that as opposed to the lightning bolt over her right eye Kushina's mask had a length of chain painted over her left eye. Again theatricality was a very, very, powerful weapon if used correctly, it could make an ordinary man or woman into something almost supernatural in nature, but only if used properly. As Naruto fastened on the black cloak that had been sitting on the coat rack next to the door and pulled up the hood obscuring his hair from view Naruto couldn't help but wonder if they were overdoing it.

The blond shrugged the thought off and calmly walked out of the makeshift office, Kushina trailing behind her own cloak firmly in place. It didn't take long to make their way outside the Nice Guy Dojo/Gym, the two used the delivery exit just for extra insurance in the hopes that no one would see them leave. Kushina turned to her sort-of-friend and held her fist up in a bring it on gesture.

"Well time to get to work," The red head stated, Naruto smirked underneath his mask and bumped the back of his own fist against Kushina's forming a pair of bring it on signs. The red head chuckled, her voice was steady there was not even the slightest sign that Kushina thought there was a chance that they could lose tonight. "See you back at the apartment." Kushina stated brightly as she walked off to her own job that night.

"See you there," Naruto called back as he walked towards his own fight. The streets were relatively deserted at one am and Naruto was actually quite thankful for that. After all the whole dark and mysterious routine would be completely ruined if there was some jackass in the background commenting on how weird his outfit was. It didn't take the blond long to reach his target, a rather large warehouse hidden in what looked like the slums of District J, a single man was standing outside a small door on the warehouses side. Naruto didn't slow his step in the slightest as he approached his target, the man tensing as he saw the strangely dressed blond approach.

"I'm here to fight," Naruto stated, deliberately making his voice sound gravely and rough. The man seemed to be sizing him up before nodding.

"Alright, go inside and talk to the man wearing the tux next to the cage, he'll let you in." The bouncer stated opening the small side door into the warehouse, the sound of techno music and yelling rolled out of the now open door. It seemed the place had some kind of sound proofing, it didn't matter. Naruto stalked inside the fight club, it was nowhere near as impressive as Gai's, a bar was on one side of the warehouse, a dance floor next to it while a steel cage was situated at it's centre. The blond could see that the bookies were on the opposite side to the dance floor, the warehouse fight club was average but nothing great. Before coming to Konoha Naruto would have been quite impressed with this set up, it seemed that his standards had been raised after being exposed to Gai's fight club. Naruto honestly wasn't sure if having high standards for a fight club was a good thing or a bad thing, the blond shelved the train of thought, it didn't really matter.

The people around him parted easily as Naruto made his way to the cage, the blonds ice blue eyes already fixed on the man in the tux. Naruto's eyes darted up, a small office was built into the wall of the warehouse, that was probably where Han'nya was. The blond stopped by the man wearing a tux just as the last fight finished, a man in boxing shorts having his jaw broken by a kick boxer. Naruto's hand came up and tapped the man on his shoulder causing him to look back annoyed before recoiling upon seeing the mask.

"And what do you want freak-show?" The man asked, he wanted to seem confident and powerful. The man wanted to make it seem like he was in control, his voice betrayed him. It broke slightly when he spoke, the pupils of his eyes dilated in fear, yes the man was nervous and probably slightly intimidated by the way Naruto looked at that moment, though he was doing his best to hide it. That was good, that was very good. People almost fed off of the emotions of others after all, if one person was nervous or even scared of him then they would put the people around them on edge. The people who were put on edge would begin to get nervous, then hopefully once they saw what he could do to people in the cage that nervousness would turn into fear. A man who was feared became more than a man in the eyes of his opponents.

"I am here to fight, call out your champion so I can kill him." Naruto stated, his voice keeping the same gravely edge to it. God he hadn't even been doing it for that long and his throat was already starting to hurt, it was probably better that he didn't speak any more than he needed to. If his voice broke in mid sentence then any and all of the nervousness and borderline fear that some of the crowd seemed to have of him would evaporate and the whole act would have been for nothing. The man in the tuxedo seemed to find his statement amusing.

"Sorry freak-show, you need to fight five fighters and win in a row before the champ will come out to play." The man stated, a condescending tone in his voice. It seemed that the man's nervousness and slight fear of him was beginning to erode. That wasn't a good thing, if the man's, admittedly unfounded, confidence spread to the others in the room Naruto knew that his theatricality wouldn't have much power at all. After all a monster has only as much power over a person as that person allowed it to have, if they didn't fear him then it wouldn't matter how well he played his roll. All the theatricality in the world would be useless in ripping the morale out of Aoi's organisation. Naruto made a split second decision, his right arm whipped up and hauled the tuxedo wearing man off of the ground by his throat. The blond could actually hear the man's bones groaning under the pressure.

"You! Are a pathetic whelp!" Naruto declared holding the man aloft easily, the blonds voice still holding it's gravely edge. Naruto checked his Chakra quickly. Just like Gai's club this place was seemingly using seals to stop people from fighting while using their Chakra abilities, that was a good thing it meant he couldn't be blind sided to easily. Naruto's arm came back and he easily tossed the man into the side of the cage, the metal shuddering under the impact as the tuxedo wearer moaned in pain. The blond quickly vaulted the sides of the cage and landed lightly, "Call your strongest, I want a challenge!" Naruto spat out at the tuxedo wearing man who nodded his face regaining what colour it had lost, a healthy amount of fear was etched into his face. That was good, Naruto honestly wasn't sure what he would have done if the man had been able to laugh that off.

"Understood," The man replied, "Do you have a preference on what order you fight the five?" He asked, keeping in character Naruto snorted with disdain at the question. Hmm, maybe Akuma wasn't the best person for him to imitate. Keeping in character and using the gravely voice was murder on his vocal chords.

"Send them all whelp, they will all fall as easily as each other!" Naruto growled out at the tuxedo wearing man who nodded and waved a hand, five men dropped into the cage, each bearing a smirk. The first was bald and wearing a pair of green shorts, the second held himself tall in a traditional Karate Gi, while the third tightened his hand wraps and took up a boxing stance, the fourth man was the kick boxer from before and finally the fifth looked like a Judoka. Under his mask Naruto grimaced while on the outside the blond gave no indication of his uncirtenty. The bell rung and the five charged as one.

"The power of my fist holds no weaknesses. Grovel in your despair!" Naruto roared as he charged his opponents, he was probably laying it on a bit thick here. Still as long as his finish of these five was spectacular and awe-inspiring enough it shouldn't matter.

**XXX**

The fight club was dead silent, no one moved. Most were afraid to even breath to loudly for fear of attracting the attention of the monster currently inside the cage at the centre of the room. The DJ had stopped playing music, the people on the dance floor didn't move any more, the bar tender was frozen just like the rest, a half poured pint in his hand. That was something Naruto didn't approve of, who the fuck wanted a warm beet after all, no one that was who! Nowhere was the frozen stillness more prevalent than ringside of the cage.

Five men had gone in, they hadn't stood a chance.

The inside of the cage looked more like a war zone than anything else, there were cracks running along its floor at regular intervals. Not much else could be made out of the floor for the vast majority of it was coated with fresh blood, along with some stray teeth. The kick boxer had been put through the side of the cage, the chain link metal had actually been forced outwards until it broke leaving the man half in and half outside of the war zone. His face was a ruin, the man's nose had been hit hard enough to actually drive it back into his skull, blood poured from his mouth though most of the man's teeth were decorating the floor in front of him.

Another man, the boxer, was outside of the cage completely, torn apart chain link metal clearly showing where his opponent had forced his body through the side of the cage. His chest was compacted and his eyes glazed, one could clearly see the imprint of a fist where his ribs had been shattered, blood leaked from the corner of the man's mouth and he didn't seem to be moving any time soon.

The last three may have been in the worst condition out of the five, it was hard to tell. The Judoka was face down on the ground, blood leaking from his broken nose and jaw while the ribs that had been broken above his lungs hurt every time he drew breath. Naruto's right foot was planted on the man's back to keep him from getting back up, if he actually could get back up.

The man in green shorts was on his knees, both legs clearly broken along with more than half his ribs. Naruto's left hand held the man's face. Keeping him from falling forward and to the blood soaked floor of the cage. The Karateka was hanging limply from the grip that Naruto had around the man's throat, holding him a full two feet off of the floor. The man's right arm was clearly broken, as was his jaw, the imprint of a fist could easily be seen on his ribs where they seemed to fold in indicating not only broken bones but organ damage. Blood was leaking from the man's moth and nose, Naruto watched it with a bored gaze from behind his mask. Really, they were this weak!? What the hell, while he didn't expect to lose Naruto had at least hoped to have somewhat of a challenge, it seemed that he was going to be disappointed.

"M-M-Monster." One of the crowd said low trembling voice, Naruto's mask face swung to face the man who had spoken. The blood coating his figure making him look far more intimidating than he had originally. The blonds gaze moved on and the man found himself let out a breath that he didn't know that he was holding. Naruto's eyes settled on the figure of the tuxedo wearing man, who paled and flinched backwards at having the blonds eyes on him, even if they were only his masks eyes.

"This should be sufficient should it not." Naruto stated, oh God that voice was absolute murder on his vocal chords. The pale faced tuxdeo man nodded, looking for all the world like he would do anything to be anywhere else in the world at that moment. "Good." Naruto stated, "Then bring out your champion, it's time for them to die." The blond continued, the pale man nodded again.

"C-C-C-C-Could y-you p-p-p-p-ple-please t-tell m-m-me y-y-your n-n-n-n-na-name si-si-s-si-sir?" The man inquired, Naruto thought about it for a second. His mouth pulled back in a vicous grin, evne if the the people around him couldn't see it. They were scared, good, he could work with that.

"Akuma."

**Chapter 8- End**

Akuma literally means Demon.


End file.
